{"id":1400,"date":"2024-05-04T16:29:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T10:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2024-05-04T16:29:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T10:44:23","slug":"the-un-warns-sudans-warring-parties-that-darfur-risks-starvation-and-death-if-aid-isnt-allowed-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/the-un-warns-sudans-warring-parties-that-darfur-risks-starvation-and-death-if-aid-isnt-allowed-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The UN warns Sudan’s warring parties that Darfur risks starvation and death if aid isn’t allowed in"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The United Nations food agency warned Sudan\u2019s warring parties Friday that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don\u2019t allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region.<\/p>\n

Leni Kinzli, the World Food Program\u2019s regional spokesperson, said at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were experiencing emergency levels of hunger in December, and the number \u201cis expected to be much higher today.\u201d
\n\u201cOur calls for humanitarian access to conflict hotspots in Sudan have never been more critical,\u201d she told a virtual U.N. press conference from Nairobi.<\/p>\n

Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region.<\/p>\n

The paramilitary forces, known as the RSF, have gained control of most of Darfur and are besieging El Fasher, the only capital in Darfur they don\u2019t hold, where some 500,000 civilians had taken refuge.
\nKinzli said WFP\u2019s partners on the ground report that the situation in El Fasher is \u201cextremely dire\u201d and it\u2019s difficult for civilians wanting to flee the reported RSF bombings and shelling to leave.<\/p>\n

She said the violence in El Fasher and surrounding North Darfur is exacerbating the critical humanitarian needs in the entire Darfur region, where crop production for staple cereals like wheat, sorghum and millet is 78% less than the five-year average.<\/p>\n

On top of the impact of escalating violence, Kinzli said, \u201cWFP is concerned that hunger will increase dramatically as the lean season between harvests sets in and people run out of food.\u201d She said a farmer in El Fasher recently told her that her family had already run out of food stocks and is living day-to-day, an indication that the \u201clean season,\u201d which usually starts in May, started earlier.<\/p>\n

Kinzli said she received photos earlier Friday from colleagues on the ground of severely malnourished children in a camp for displaced people in Central Darfur, as well as older people \u201cwho have nothing left but skin and bones.\u201d
\n\u201cRecent reports from our partners indicate that 20 children have died in recent weeks of malnutrition in that IDP camp,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells,\u201d Kinzli said. \u201cAnd if assistance doesn\u2019t reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan.\u201d
\nKinzli called for \u201ca concerted diplomatic effort by the international community to push the warring parties to provide access and safety guarantees\u201d for humanitarian staff and convoys.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to ignite the world’s largest hunger crisis,\u201d she warned. \u201cWith almost 28 million people facing food insecurity across Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, the conflict is spilling over and exacerbating the challenges that we’ve already been facing over the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, Sudanese authorities revoked WFP\u2019s permission to deliver aid from neighboring Chad to West Darfur and Central Darfur from the town of Adre, saying that crossing had been used to transfer weapons to the RSF. Kinzli said restrictions from Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan are also preventing WFP from transporting aid via Adre.
\nSudanese authorities approved the delivery of aid from the Chadian town of Tina to North Darfur, but Kinzli said WFP can no longer use that route for security reasons because it goes directly into besieged El Fasher.
\nOn Thursday, gunmen in South Darfur killed two drivers for the International Committee of the Red Cross and injured three ICRC staff members. On Friday, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffith called the killing of aid works \u201cunconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinzli said the fighting \u201cand endless bureaucratic hurdles\u201d have prevented WFP from delivering aid to over 700,000 people in Darfur ahead of the rainy season when many roads become impassable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWFP currently has 8,000 tons of food supplies ready to move in Chad, ready to transport, but is unable to do so because of these constraints,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWFP urgently requires unrestricted access and security guarantees to deliver assistance,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we must be able to use the Adre border crossing, and move assistance across front lines from Port Sudan in the east to Darfur so we can reach people in this desperate region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations food agency warned Sudan\u2019s warring parties Friday that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don\u2019t allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region. Leni Kinzli, the World Food Program\u2019s regional spokesperson, said at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1402,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}