Millions of Sudanese lives are at stake as world leaders get ready to meet in New York at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Islamic Relief is warning. With hunger spreading across the country, governments at UNGA must agree decisive action to prevent widespread famine.
Time to stop famine is running out as the war rages on relentlessly. Many farmers in Sudan’s breadbasket regions are now at risk of missing the upcoming winter planting season if fighting continues to displace people and cut off access to fields. In recent weeks, severe flooding has further disrupted food supplies in the east and west of the country. Islamic Relief staff supporting health and nutrition clinics across Sudan are seeing rising malnutrition among young children and pregnant women.
Famine has already been declared in one camp in North Darfur, where numerous children have starved to death, but across the country 25.6 million people – around half the entire population – are now at crisis levels of hunger or worse. Many are at risk of starvation if the war continues.
Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Sudan, says:
“As world leaders gather in New York, we urge them to hear the calls from starving families in Sudan. Hunger is rapidly increasing here but the aid response is stifled by the triple threat of a critical shortfall of funds, the ongoing fighting, and parties to the conflict obstructing humanitarian access to large parts of the country. Children are already dying but millions more lives are at stake. At the UN General Assembly we urgently need the international community to step up diplomatic efforts and increase pressure on the warring parties to secure a ceasefire and allow more aid to starving people, and to deliver on the promises they made to scale up the aid response.”
Despite the enormous challenges, it is possible to deliver aid when funding is available. Since the war erupted in April 2023 Islamic Relief has delivered aid to over 978,000 people – including food, medicine, cash grants and hygiene kits, as well as supporting hospitals and health facilities. This month alone, in Darfur Islamic Relief has provided 237.5 tonnes of food to over 12,000 families, as well as cash assistance to 2,700 families.
Islamic Relief is calling on donors to deliver the promises made at the Paris Conference in April, where $2.2 billion was pledged in humanitarian aid. Five months later, much of it has still not materialised. We are also calling on donors to invest more in actions to prevent famine, such as increasing cash-based programming – as distributing cash is vital so that people can afford to buy food and other essentials in local markets that are struggling to keep functioning – and supporting small and medium-scale farmers with inputs such as seeds and tools.
More than 17 months of war has devastated food production and availability in the country. Agricultural output of staple foods in Sudan declined 46% in 2023 and many Sudanese have lost income, property and don’t have enough money to buy food.
Severe flooding in recent weeks has further exacerbated the hunger crisis, with more than 442,000 people affected across the country. Heavy rains and the collapse of the Arbaat dam has caused widespread flooding in eastern Sudan, reducing the water supply to Port Sudan where thousands of displaced families are sheltering. Islamic Relief is now responding to flooding in six villages in the east. In Darfur in western Sudan, floods have destroyed roads and bridges, cutting off entire communities.
Nearly 11 million people are currently displaced in Sudan as the war has fuelled one of the largest displacement crises in the world. In recent weeks fighting has continued or escalated in parts of Darfur, Khartoum and Sennar, and many civilians in the city of El Obeid are besieged and cut off from food, medicine and other vital supplies.
Islamic Relief Canada is present at UNGA this weekend, advocating for urgent action from world leaders to protect the millions of lives at stake in Sudan