As the war in Sudan nears the grim mark of 500 days, one area in the country is experiencing the "first famine confirmed worldwide since 2017" and 13 more regions are at imminent risk of famine, an official of the UN's food agency told Anadolu.
The only way to prevent famine from spreading is for the international community to be "paying more attention to Sudan," said Leni Kinzli, head of communications and spokesperson for World Food Program (WFP) Sudan.
Famine has been confirmed in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Darfur, which was the "first confirmation of famine worldwide since 2017," she said.
There are over 25.6 million people in Sudan facing acute hunger and another 8.5 million in emergency levels of hunger, she added.
"We need an immediate cessation of hostilities so that we can flood aid into the country to … prevent famine from spreading to other places across the country," Kinzli told Anadolu.
Regarding the confirmed case of famine, she said people in Zamzam camp were first displaced decades ago due to the Darfur crisis.
"Even before this current war that started 16 months ago, it was a very needy population that was living there, dependent on food assistance," she said.
This is also the first famine confirmation in Sudan in the history of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), she said, referring to the globally recognized assessment and analysis process set up in 2004 to identify food security risks around the world.
Among the 13 areas at risk of famine are some, like two localities in Al-Jazirah state, that "had no issues with food insecurity before the conflict," said Kinzli.
The current situation has deteriorated to the point where "we have received reports of people eating leaves off of trees or grass," said the WFP official.
People are "resorting to very dire coping mechanisms to try to have any kind of sustenance to make it to the next day," she added.
"These are really people who are struggling day by day to survive."
Kinzli said food insecurity in Sudan has been growing worse year by year since 2019.
"Before the conflict broke out 16 months ago, we were already seeing each year, higher and higher levels of hunger, record levels of hunger," she said.
"Now for the last 16 months, the war has just further exacerbated this situation, leading to the largest hunger crisis in the world."
One in every two Sudanese people are struggling to put food on their plate, she added.
Some of the main drivers of the harrowing situation are a "macroeconomic crisis" and "inter-communal violence," according to the official.
Other factors are the repeated "conflict displacement," along with climate disasters such as droughts and floods, which have led to below average agricultural production, she said.
Last year's average nationwide harvest for staple cereal crops like sorghum, millet and wheat was 41% below the five-year average, while food production has significantly plunged over the past six months, Kinzli explained.
Citing examples, she said large swaths of agricultural land have now become battlefields, like in Al-Jazirah and other states in eastern Sudan that "were previously the country's breadbasket."
Farmers are "not able to access their lands because of insecurity" and also find it increasingly difficult "to plant in these areas because the inputs such as fertilizers, seeds have become so expensive," she said.
"The conflict is further exacerbating the already pre-existing macroeconomic crisis … Supply chains are completely disrupted. Critical infrastructure has been destroyed across the country, including critical factories to produce key food items such as wheat flour," she explained.
"Sudan is a nation in ruins at this point. This all led to this absolutely catastrophic hunger situation."
The longer the war continues, the worse the situation is going to get "because of the impact it is having on the entire agricultural system, food production, inflation and the economic crisis," said Kinizli, stressing the urgency for a halt to hostilities.
"At some point, people are not going to be able to afford food anymore," she said.
"The longer the war continues … the more people will slip into higher and deeper levels of hunger, and unfortunately, the more hunger-related deaths that could happen."
She said the WFP has received reports of hunger-related deaths in certain locations, but there is no overall total figure so far.
"This very much would actually be up to the government and local governments to report these … As you can imagine the connectivity in Sudan is also completely broken down," she said.
Sudan is currently in its "lean season, which is where food is typically less available," she said.
"It's also the peak hunger season because it's the season between harvests. It ends usually by the end of September or October, then we should see a slight improvement in food insecurity," said the WFP official.
"But is what is concerning is what will happen in next year's lean season between May and September if the war continues, if crop production continues to be below average."
Kinzli also spoke about the challenges being faced by the WFP on the ground, stressing that "getting aid into Sudan has been extremely difficult."
"It is one of the most complex operating environments in the world today, with immense constraints when it comes to humanitarian access," she said.
This, she added, is because of the active fighting, insecurity and lawlessness, as well as bureaucratic impediments and lengthy clearance processes.
"Also the fact that not all border crossings are open for us to bring assistance in, and that both warring parties … are interfering with the delivery of assistance and not necessarily facilitating unfettered access for humanitarian agencies," said Kinzli.
She called out the international community for allowing Sudan to "become somewhat of an ignored crisis."
"By and large, the world needs to be paying more attention to Sudan … There needs to be an increase in diplomatic efforts … and we also need a massive increase in funding because the needs in Sudan just continue to increase and are further exacerbated every single day that the war goes on," she said.
"The international community really needs to step up more for the Sudanese people."
