Millions of Sudanese go hungry as war disrupts food supply

CAIRO — A mother who skips meals so there is enough food for her two children. A 60-year-old man who eats one meal a day – a lump of dough made of flour and water. People venturing out from their homes in a desperate search for food at the risk of being hit by artillery shells.

Dozens of accounts like these gathered by Reuters show how many people are going hungry in parts of Sudan worst hit by the war that erupted last April, including areas in the capital Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur. The number of Sudanese facing emergency levels of hunger – one stage before famine – has more than tripled in a year to almost five million, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a globally recognized food security index.

In Sudan’s capital, hundreds of thousands of people face a daily struggle to find food as communal kitchens they depend on are threatened by dwindling supplies and a communications blackout across much of the country in recent weeks. In Darfur, some areas haven’t received any aid since the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary, went to war almost a year ago.

Aid agencies, which say they have been unable to deliver food to many areas of the war-torn country, are warning that hunger is set to worsen as Sudan’s April-july lean season approaches — the time of year when food availability is low because farmers are planting.

“We are in grave danger of epic, biblical style famine in Sudan,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in an interview after visiting camps in Chad in midfebruary where over half a million Sudanese refugees now reside.