It is official – there is famine in Sudan

For only the third time in the past 20 years, the UN has declared a full-blown famine, as anarchy in Sudan has created one of the world’s most acute humanitarian disasters in decades. The declaration concerns a refugee camp called Zamzam, on the outskirts of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan.

The Famine Review Committee confirmed famine in Sudan’s Northern Darfur region due to ongoing war, providing a critical alert for the international community. It emphasizes the acuteness of the world’s largest hunger crisis which affects almost 26 million people, approximately half Sudan’s population. 

But we have known about this for some time; in May, the United Nations warned that 18 million Sudanese are “acutely hungry” including 3.6 million children who are “acutely malnourished.” The western region of Darfur, where the threat is greatest, is nearly cut off from humanitarian aid. As long ago as April, Médecins Sans Frontières, a charity, estimated that every two hours a child in the camp was dying from starvation or disease—and since then the situation has got worse.  According to one projection, as much as five percent of Sudan’s population could die of starvation by the end of the year.

So, what does this mean for the surrounding countries? The more than 2.7 million displaced people who have fled Sudan are placing heavy pressure on already struggling neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Chad closed its borders to additional refugees; Egypt’s remain open, but reports suggest long wait times, dangerous conditions, and efforts to return refugees back to harm’s way in Sudan. It is a crisis that could exacerbate an already fragile part of Africa, with an ongoing conflict, which began almost a year and a half ago, that has worsened these desperate circumstances, necessitating immediate actions toward a ceasefire. 

A ceasefire however has proved elusive.  Mediation efforts beginning in 2023, led by the United States, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, have been unsuccessful. These efforts have been complicated by geo-political jostling for influence it seems, with some outside governments supporting one of the warring parties. For example, the United Arab Emirates is reportedly sending arms to RSF, and according to analysts both Saudi Arabia and Iran have lent support to the Sudanese army. Egypt, Sudan’s neighbor to the north, is receiving some 750,000 refugees and increasingly throwing its support behind the Sudanese army to help protect access to the Nile River. 

Is there any end in sight? At a Ministerial Meeting on Sudan convened by Germany, France, the United States and the European Union in New York this week, during the United Nations General Assembly, participants called upon “all foreign actors, to refrain from providing military support to the warring parties and to focus their efforts towards building the conditions for a negotiated resolution of the conflict”. 

Sudan needs both coordinated international and regional efforts, coupled with a profound willingness to take decisive actions to end the armed conflict in Sudan. The longer the fighting goes on its people will die through famine and it will create a humanitarian crisis that threatens regional peace and security.  

*Kieran Baker is an Emmy award winning journalist who has started up various networks including Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg TV Africa and TRT World.