Sudan war raises malnutrition, starvation across region

The UN World Food Programme has warned that the long war in Sudan has resulted in widespread starvation and the world’s worst displacement disaster.

According to the agency, at least 25 million people are suffering from rising rates of hunger and malnutrition as Sudan’s crisis sends shockwaves throughout the region.

The World Food Programme has expressed concern about a lack of resources to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

Thousands of families are being displaced and forced across borders into Chad and South Sudan each week, said Annabel Symington, a spokesperson for the WFP.

Some 1.8 million people fleeing the war mainly have found refuge in neighbouring Chad and South Sudan but these grapple with their own fragilities.

In South Sudan, families fleeing Sudan now make up 35% of those facing catastrophic levels of hunger, despite only accounting for 3% of the population.

Malnutrition rates are increasing rapidly among children who are languishing in temporary transit camps, like the camp in Renk.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), around 4% of children under the age of five who cross the border into South Sudan are malnourished.

According to the World Food Programme, 18 million Sudanese people are acutely food insecure, with around 3.8 million Sudanese children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition.

Those crossing the border into South Sudan, however, are joining families who are already suffering from reduced rations and severe hunger.

Five years of war and record flooding have plunged South Sudan into a precarious scenario, with more than 75% of the country’s 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and nearly three million on the verge of hunger.