Famine confirmed in Sudan’s North Darfur, confirming UN agencies worst fears

The Famine Review Committee (FRC)’s conclusion that there is famine in Zamzam camp, is the first determination of famine by the Committee in more than 7 years, and only the third time a famine determination has been made since the monitoring system was created 20 years ago. The FRC warns that other parts of Sudan risk famine if concerted action is not taken.

The famine announcement confirms the fears of the humanitarian community and follows an IPC analysis in June showing a dramatic decline in food and nutrition security; with 755,000 people facing catastrophic conditions.

UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme (WFP)have been warning of the escalating risk to the people of Sudan, particularly children, if urgent aid cannot be delivered to communities trapped in conflict hotspots like Darfur, Khartoum, Kordofan and Al Jazirah. The situation remains critical across the whole country, with an estimated 730,000 children projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition (SAM) this year, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.

A determination of famine means that people, including children, have already started dying of hunger and related conditions including malnutrition and infection. Unlike the Darfur crisis of twenty years ago, this conflict-fuelled hunger crisis spans the whole country including the capital Khartoum and Jazirah State, previously Sudan’s breadbasket.

Severely restricted humanitarian access is one of the main drivers of the famine conditions in Zamzam. While UNICEF was able to deliver enough supplies of life-saving Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to treat approximately 4,000 severely acutely malnourished children to El Fasher in July, including an allocation for Zamzam camp, the continued lack of sustained, safe access means the needs remain huge and continued ability to deliver humanitarian supplies is unpredictable.

 “We urgently need a massive expansion of humanitarian access so we can halt the famine that has taken hold in North Darfur and stop it sweeping across Sudan. The warring parties must lift all restrictions and open new supply routes across borders, and across conflict lines, so relief agencies can get to cut-off communities with desperately needed food and other humanitarian aid,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “I also call on the international community to act now to secure a ceasefire in this brutal conflict and end Sudan’s slide into famine. It is the only way we will reverse a humanitarian catastrophe that is destabilizing this entire region of Africa.”

“Today’s news confirms some of our worst fears that famine is occurring in parts of Sudan and is inflicting unimaginable suffering on children and families who are already reeling from the impact of a horrific war,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This famine is fully man-made. We again call on all the parties to provide the humanitarian system with unimpeded and safe access to children and families in need. We must be able to use all routes, across lines of conflict and borders. Sudan’s children cannot wait. They need protection, basic services and most of all, a ceasefire and peace.”

UNICEF and WFP continue to call on all parties to guarantee safe unhindered and sustained humanitarian access, to allow the humanitarian response to be further expanded and to allow the agencies to deliver at speed. The agencies also urge the international community to intensify their financial support for humanitarian efforts and use every diplomatic tool at their disposal to bring about an immediate ceasefire WFP and UNICEF have mobilised a large-scale humanitarian response with local and international partners, inside Sudan and in neighbouring countries where more than 2 million Sudanese have fled to safety.

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Notes for editors:

An IPC Phase 5 Famine classification is the highest phase of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale and is attributed when an area has at least one in five households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30 per cent of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 dying each day due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

In 2024, WFP has supported more than 4 million IDPs, refugees and vulnerable communities across Sudan with food and cash assistance, including 1.7 million in June alone.  As fighting intensifies in El Fasher, Khartoum, and now in Sennar State the humanitarian community is struggling to deliver at scale, as humanitarian needs rise to extraordinary levels. The rainy season is adding another layer of complexity as roads become flooded and impassable.

In hard-to-reach areas, like the capital Khartoum, WFP is supporting community kitchens through local partners and expanding cash-based assistance, including a self-registration pilot for residents of Khartoum.

The fighting around Sinja, the capital of Sennar State, has sparked a new wave of displacement and cut off some key aid routes. 

In 2024, UNICEF and partners reached 5.2 million children and families with safe drinking water, 3.3 million people with critical health supplies, almost 2.8 million children with malnutrition screening – over 133,600 with lifesaving treatment.

UNICEF, together with partners has expanded its nutrition-focused partnerships to 152 localities across Sudan. Out of the 132 priority localities, 103 are in hard-to-reach areas due to the conflict.

In May and June 2024 alone, over 170 new Outpatient Therapeutic Programmes (OTPs) were set up, bringing the total number of functional OTPs in Sudan to 1,739 In addition, UNICEF is providing lifesaving services through 70 mobile teams. From January to June 2024, over 133,600 severely malnourished children were admitted. UNICEF continues to move lifesaving nutrition supplies through crossline and cross-border operations sufficient to treat 215,000 severely malnourished children.

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