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UN: Third of Sudan's population faces acute food insecurity

Forty percent of the cash-strapped country's population is expected to slip into food insecurity by September, the UN food agency warns.

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Funding levels fall short of meeting humanitarian needs in Sudan.

A third of Sudan' population is currently facing a food crisis due to the compounded impact of climate shocks, political turmoil and rising global food prices, the UN food agency has warned.

A joint report by the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday said that 15 million people face acute food insecurity across all of the East African country's 18 provinces.

“The combined effects of conflict, climate shocks, economic and political crises, rising costs and poor harvests are pushing millions of people deeper into hunger and poverty," said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s representative in Sudan.

"We must act now to avoid increasing hunger levels and to save the lives of those already affected,” Rowe added.

Living conditions rapidly deteriorated across cash-strapped Sudan since an October military coup sent an already fragile economy into free-fall, with the Russian offensive in Ukraine compounding the economic pain.

Lack of funding

Funding levels fall short of meeting humanitarian needs in Sudan, where 40 percent of the population is expected to slip into food insecurity by September, the report said.

Sudan has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove Omar al Bashir and his government in April 2019.

The October 25 military takeover upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule. There have been weekly protests calling for the military to step down ever since.

The coup also stalled two years of efforts by the deposed civilian government to overhaul the economy with billions of dollars in loans and aid from major Western governments and international financial institutions.

Such support was suspended after the coup.

The report noted that the West Darfur town of Kreinik, where tribal clashes claimed more than 200 lives in April, stands out as the most affected, with 90 percent of the townspeople facing hunger.

Sudan was plunged into an economic crisis when the oil-rich south seceded in 2011 after decades of civil war, taking with it more than half of public revenues and 95 percent of exports.