IPC report outlines famine in five areas, including in Sudan’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam, in North Darfur province.
Published On 24 Dec 2024
Famine is spreading in Sudan due to a war between the army and paramilitary group, a United Nations-backed global hunger-monitoring group says.
The Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published a report on Tuesday outlining famine in five areas, including in Sudan’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam, in North Darfur province.
Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in el-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, as well as in residential and displaced communities in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan, according to the report.
The five-member committee also found that famine, first identified in August, will likely spread to another five areas – Um Kadadah, Melit, el-Fasher, Tawisha and al-Lait – by May. It also identified another 17 areas across Sudan at risk of famine.
According to the IPC report, 24.6 million Sudanese – half of the population – face acute food shortages.
“[The war] has triggered unprecedented mass displacement, a collapsing economy, the breakdown of essential social services, severe societal disruptions, and poor humanitarian access,” the report said.
The IPC, an independent body funded by Western nations, comprises more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups and governments that use its monitoring as a global reference for analysis of food and nutrition crises.
The report was published despite the Sudanese government’s continued disruption of the IPC’s proce