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Ending famine in Sudan requires political will and leadership, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council on Tuesday, as the spokesman urged the warring parties to heed repeated calls from the international community to stop fighting and avoid a further deterioration of an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
“Our warnings were not heard,” said Stephen Omollo, assistant executive director for workplace and management at the World Food Programme (WFP), recalling previous warnings of a widespread breakdown in food security in Sudan. He noted that WFP’s Famine Review Committee had concluded that famine existed in the Zam Zam refugee camp near El Fasher in North Darfur, and that there was a high risk in Darfur and elsewhere, with more than half the country’s population facing a hunger crisis.
He said the Security Council must ensure that “this forgotten crisis” receives “urgently needed political and diplomatic attention.” He noted that both the Government and the rebels had failed to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law, routinely obstructing cross-border clearance requests and imposing restrictions on cross-border routes.
Worse still, “Sudan is woefully underfunded,” he said, and increased and flexible funding was needed to support a rapid scale-up of relief operations “if we are to save lives.”
Also briefing the 15-member body, OCHA’s director of operations and advocacy, Edem Wosolnou, noted that 26 million people are currently suffering from acute hunger, a figure three times the population of New York City. When famine strikes, “it means we arrived too late … we, the international community, have failed,” she lamented. “This is a completely man-made crisis and a disgrace to our collective conscience.”
Aid is readily available in the Zam Zam region of eastern Chad, but heavy rains have flooded the Tine crossing – currently the only authorized cross-border route between eastern Chad and Darfur – after Sudanese authorities revoked permission for the Adre crossing, which would have been the most efficient route. “Aid delayed is aid denied,” she said, stressing that “it is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering from crossing through Sudan”.
She noted that the Sudan humanitarian appeal was only 32% funded, with the actual amount raised being US$874 million, while the actual funds needed were US$2.7 billion.
In the ensuing discussion, delegates called for an immediate ceasefire by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, as it remains the only sustainable solution to prevent the further spread of famine. They also supported the call by UN officials for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all parts of Sudan through all possible routes and additional financial resources.
However, the Sudanese representative said that reports of famine in Zam Zam and other refugee camps were “not true”, noting that conditions in those camps did not meet the criteria for declaring famine. Holding up a photo of children in Zam Zam, he stressed that IDPs in the camps were not dying or starving. Furthermore, he reiterated that it was not the Government that was hindering humanitarian assistance, and attributed the shortage of food and humanitarian aid to the siege by the Rapid Support Forces.
The representative of the Russian Federation said that although Sudan faced severe food challenges and the threat of famine was obvious, the problem was not food shortages but logistics and distribution issues. He stressed that the famine problem should not be artificially exploited, but that priority should be given to the development of agriculture and farmers’ access to markets.
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