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FAO calls for urgent action to address widening famine in Sudan
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Saturday, 11 January, 2025, 15 : 00 PM [IST]
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Rome, Italy & New York, USA
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Urgent action, in particular immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, is required to address the widening famine in Sudan, where almost 25 million people face acute food insecurity, the deputy director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Beth Bechdol, told a UN Security Council meeting in New York.
FAO was invited to brief the Security Council on the deeply concerning situation in Sudan, where a protracted armed conflict and forced displacements are driving an unprecedented food crisis in Africa's third-largest country.
According to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), half of the population – or 24.6 million people – are facing acute food insecurity levels. This is 3.5 million more people since June 2024.
The latest report by the IPC, a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making, is the worst in the country’s history. Widespread starvation and acute malnutrition have already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in a country where almost two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture.
Production of key crops such as sorghum, millet and wheat during the first year of the conflict – the 2023/24 season – was down 46 percent from the previous year. This production loss could have fed approximately 18 million people for a year and represented an economic loss of between $1.3 and $1.7 billion.
Restricted humanitarian access is exacerbating the situation, while sustained violence and economic turmoil have disrupted markets, driving the price of staple goods to unaffordable levels.
This marks the fourth time that famine has been confirmed in a country over the past 15 years, Bechdol reminded, as she highlighted the Security Council’s critical role through Resolution 2417, which highlights the link between conflict and hunger.
Bechdol said, "We must take urgent action to address the famine in Sudan. If we fail to act now, collectively, and at scale, millions of lives are even further at risk, and, so is the stability of many nations in the region."
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