Sudan catastrophe threatens to engulf region: UN

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C) gestures as he attends a graduation ceremony in Gibet near Port Sudan on July 31, 2024. Burhan, whose forces are battling paramilitaries, was evacuated after a drone attacked a military base he was visiting in the country's east on July 31, witnesses told AFP. The army said five people were killed in a drone attack on a ceremony at the Gibet base, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Port Sudan, where the army-aligned government has fled since fighting gripped the capital Khartoum.

(Photo by AFP)

(AFP) - The humanitarian catastrophe in conflict-ravaged Sudan threatens to engulf the entire region, the United Nations warned Friday after famine was declared in the North Darfur region.

War between the army and rival paramilitaries has pushed the Zamzam camp near the besieged city of El-Fasher into famine, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review said Thursday.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, urged international donors to step up support for Sudan, where civil war has raged since April 2023 and left tens of thousands dead according to the UN.

"The warning signs were there for months," said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR's regional refugee coordinator for the Sudan situation.

"Displaced women, children and men are dying of hunger, malnutrition and disease," he said.

"With appalling human rights atrocities, the forced displacement of over 10 million people since the start of the war last year, and the lack of the most basic services for a large percentage of the population, the world's most pressing humanitarian catastrophe is growing and deepening every day, threatening to engulf the whole region."

Balde is also UNHCR's East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regional director.

He said the volume of refugees and internally displaced people was stretching host communities to a breaking point.

"Urgent action is vital to avert even more death and suffering."

The World Health Organization has meanwhile warned that while the IPC limited its conclusions to Zamzam -- a swelling displacement camp hosting more than 300,000 people -- "other areas of Sudan, both within Darfur and elsewhere, are potentially experiencing famine".

A recent UN-backed report said nearly 26 million people, or slightly more than half of the population, were facing high levels of "acute food insecurity".

Balde called for an end to the war, and for humanitarians to be given access to deliver life-saving aid, saying "The people of Sudan have suffered enough".

© Agence France-Presse