Sudan’s war spreads famine in Darfur, Kordofan regions : NPR

This photo released by the Norwegian Refugee Council shows women and children displaced from El-Fasher on November 3 in a camp in Tawilia, in Sudan’s Darfur region, where they sought refuge after fighting between government forces and the RSF.

Marwan Mohammed/CNRC/AP

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Marwan Mohammed/CNRC/AP

CAIRO — Famine has spread to two regions of war-torn Sudan, including a major city in Darfur where paramilitary fighters are on the rampage, a global hunger monitoring group said Monday, as the war created the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on food crises, said famine was detected in El-Fasher in Darfur and Kadugli town in South Kordofan province. Twenty other regions in Darfur and Kordofan, where fighting has intensified in recent months, are also at risk of famine, according to the IPC.

El-Fasher had been under siege by rapid support paramilitary forces for 18 months, depriving tens of thousands of people of much food and other supplies. Last week, RSF fighters seized El Fasher, triggering attacks that reportedly left hundreds dead, although the scale of the violence is unclear due to poor communications.

The town of Kadugli has also been under siege by the RSF for months, with tens of thousands of people trapped, as the paramilitary group attempts to seize more territory from its rival, the Sudanese army.

“Extremely high levels of malnutrition”

War has torn Sudan apart since April 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to UN figures, but humanitarian organizations say the real number could be several times higher. The fighting has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and fueled epidemics.

The latest IPC report states that El-Fasher and Kadugli have experienced “total collapse of livelihoods, famine, extremely high levels of malnutrition and deaths.”

Famine is determined in areas where deaths from causes related to malnutrition reach at least two people, or four children under 5 years old, per 10,000; at least one person or household in five is seriously lacking food and at risk of starvation; and at least 30% of children under 5 are acutely malnourished based on a weight-for-height measurement – ​​or 15% based on arm circumference.

The IPC has only confirmed famine a few times, most recently in northern Gaza earlier this year, amid Israel’s campaign against Hamas. It also confirmed famine in Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020.

The IPC had previously declared famine in five locations in Sudan. Three of them were sprawling refugee camps near El Fasher that emptied as RSF troops advanced, with most people fleeing to El Fasher or nearby towns. The other locations were in parts of South and West Kordofan provinces, which have since also fallen into RSF hands.

The new report warns that towns near El Fasher, including Tawila, Melit and Tawisha, are at risk of famine.

According to the report, around 375,000 people were pushed into famine in Darfur and Kordofan as of September, with an additional 6.3 million people across Sudan facing extreme levels of hunger.

Paramilitaries focus on Darfur

Since the Sudanese army retook the capital, Khartoum, earlier this year, the RSF has focused on the Darfur region in the west and capturing Kordofan to secure supply lines to the center of the country.

In September, Save the Children said food supplies were exhausted in Kadugli, where fighting had intensified.

Another town in Kordofan, Dilling, reportedly experienced the same conditions as Kadugli, but the IPC did not announce famine there due to lack of data, according to the new report.

Across Sudan, the IPC said more than 21 million people, or 45% of the population, faced acute food insecurity in September, a drop of 6% from the previous report which covered the period from December 2024 to May this year.

The decline is due to reduced conflict and improved humanitarian access in Khartoum, neighboring Gezira province and eastern Sennar province, after the army regained control of Khartoum and Gezira, allowing more than a million displaced people to return home.

The IPC called for a ceasefire as the only measure “that can prevent further loss of life and help contain extreme levels of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition.”