18 million people are now experiencing acute food shortages in war-torn Sudan, and some areas of the Darfur region will in a few weeks experience catastrophic hunger, warns the UN.
– The war in Sudan could trigger the world’s worst hunger disaster, recently stated the head of the UN Food Program (WFP), Cindy McCain.
– One child now dies every two hours in the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, says Edem Wosornu.
She is head of humanitarian operations at the UN Office for Emergency Relief (OCHA).
– Our partners estimate that around 220,000 children will die of malnutrition in Sudan in the coming weeks and months, says Wosornu.
Fresh UN report sounds the alarm about famine
Extreme food shortage in Gaza
In the Gaza Strip, over 1.1 million people are now affected by hunger at level five on the so-called IPC scale, where five is the most critical level, according to the UN. This means extreme food shortages and a significant risk of dying.
Over 850,000 others are affected by level four hunger and are also completely dependent on immediate emergency aid from outside if lives are not to be lost.
– Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – are still stuck in an endless nightmare, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres when he visited the border with Gaza this weekend. The looming famine is morally bankrupt, he added.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), all children die of catastrophic malnutrition in Gaza, and Israel’s warfare and strict blockade are to blame.
FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER: Desperate Palestinians fight for food at a makeshift soup kitchen in Rafah. The entire population of Gaza is starving, and according to the UN, over 1.1 million people are on the brink of famine. Photo: AP / NTB
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Mass starvation in Haiti
Also Haiti, where criminal gangs have taken control of large parts of the country, is now threatened by famine, warns the UN.
1.4 million Haitians are on the brink of famine, and a further 4 million are completely dependent on food aid from outside. Some of them now only eat one meal a day, others have to go days without food.
– Haiti is facing prolonged mass starvation, Jean-Martin Bauer stated recently. He leads WFP’s activities in the country.
– In parts of the capital Port-au-Prince, the proportion of malnourished is now on a par with any war zone in the world, he stated.
UNSAFE: A health worker holds a small, malnourished child in his arms at a hospital in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Outside, criminal gangs are ravaging the streets, and 1.4 million people in Haiti are now threatened by famine, according to the UN. Photo: AP / NTB
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The body shuts down
Hunger can claim lives surprisingly quickly, says Tobias Stillman of the aid organization Action Against Hunger.
Without sufficient access to food, the body first begins to burn carbohydrates and fat, then protein is drained from muscles and vital organs.
The body gradually shuts down functions such as combustion and is no longer able to absorb nutrients. New access to food is therefore not enough, and nutrition must be administered carefully and intravenously.
Severe malnutrition also makes people very vulnerable to infection and disease as the immune system shuts down.
The children are hit the hardest. Both physical and mental development stops, and even common childhood illnesses claim life.
Pregnant women and mothers who are breastfeeding are also often among the first victims, as are the elderly and people who already have health problems.
VULNERABLE: When children get too little food, the body’s vital organs gradually shut down, and physical and mental growth stops. Eventually, the children are no longer able to take in food and drink in the usual way, but must receive intravenous nutrition. Photo: Nils-Inge Kruhaug / NTB
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Man-made
Food shortages are not a new phenomenon either in Sudan, Haiti or Gaza, where many were previously dependent on emergency aid. When war and conflict strike, help is not forthcoming, and the consequences are catastrophic.
The famine that now threatens these three places therefore has one thing in common: It is man-made and could have been avoided.
– The crisis in the Gaza Strip is man-made, says foreign director Gudrun Bertinusse ni Care Norge. So does the head of Save the Children’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Xavier Joubert.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell accuses Israel of using hunger as a weapon in its warfare against the Palestinians in Gaza, and UN emergency chief Martin Griffiths believes the international community https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1769746065991852212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1769746065991852212%7Ctwgr%5E816dcf998bcb86dd9fef0e6a1f72474da791f19a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Fliveblog%2F2024%2F3%2F18%2Fisraels-war-on-gaza-live-ceasefire-push-as-rafah-invasion-looms because they allow this to happen.
Israel rejects the criticism and claims that it is letting enough emergency aid into the Gaza Strip.
– Israel has allowed extensive humanitarian aid to Gaza via ground, air and sea, https://twitter.com/Israel_katz/status/1769658900289098140?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Emergency aid as a weapon
Hunger in Sudan is also man-made. For eleven months, a war has raged between the government army under the leadership of coup maker Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF militia, led by Burhan’s former second-in-command Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
LIFE IN UNCERTAINTY: A woman prepares a meal for her family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Daily meals are no longer a matter of course for millions of people in the country, and according to the UN, 1.4 million people are on the brink of famine. Photo: AP / NTB
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Thousands have been killed, 10 million have been displaced, and less than 5 percent of the population can now afford one meal a day, according to the WFP.
There are bombed-out planes at the airport in Khartoum, foreign embassies are closed and looted, and so are hospitals, factories, banks, churches, shops and emergency aid stores.
In February, Burhan announced that the government army would no longer allow emergency aid into areas controlled by the RSF militia, which, according to MSF, particularly affects the civilian population in the states of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Jazeera.
Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim (Sp) has no doubt that emergency aid is used as a weapon in Sudan as well.
– Humanitarian aid and access should not be politicized or used as a weapon in war, she recently stated.
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Hunger and anarchy
Haiti has for several decades been characterized by political instability, corruption, mismanagement and widespread gang violence. The healthcare system is poorly developed, unemployment is high and there has long been a shortage of food.
The assassination of then Prime Minister Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 added to further chaos, and his successor Ariel Henry announced his resignation earlier in the month. That has not calmed the situation.
Heavily armed criminal gangs now rule the capital Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country, and many residents no longer dare to go outside.
The airport is closed, police stations and other public buildings have been stormed and set on fire, thousands of prisoners have escaped from the country’s two largest prisons, shops and warehouses are looted, bodies lie in the streets and aid work is life-threatening.
No one sees any immediate solution to the anarchy, and the outside world, led by the United States, shows little willingness to intervene.
The international community is failing both Haiti, Sudan and Gaza, aid organizations note.
– If a famine is declared, it will all be too late for many, and the children will be the first victims, says Xavier Joubert in Save the Children.
