A UN organization has warned that time is running out to avert hunger in Darfur, in western Sudan, as increasing conflict ravages the African country.
The World Food Program’s (WFP) regional head for Eastern Africa claimed on Friday that people had been made to eat “grass and peanut shells.” Michael Dunford continued, “We run the risk of seeing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas of Sudan if assistance doesn’t reach them soon.
Since April 2023, when violence broke out between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, the country has been engulfed in a civil war. It swiftly spiraled into a bloody war marked by allegations of genocidal and sexual brutality against civilians, which led to a mass refugee flight.
The humanitarian organization reports that three additional staff members were injured in an attack on Thursday that resulted in the deaths of two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drivers in South Darfur by gunmen.
According to the organization, the ICRC team was ambushed while traveling to evaluate the situation in villages impacted by armed conflict in the area.
On April 25, the boundary between Sudan and Chad is depicted. The UN estimates that the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary RSF has resulted in more than 8.7 million people being displaced.
The latest surge in violence comes as the RSF encircles North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher.
In the city and its surrounding localities, there have been “increasing arbitrary killings,” systematic “burning of entire villages” and “escalating air bombardments,” the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Toby Hayward, said on Thursday.
Hayward added that El Fasher is the only city in Darfur that has not been captured by the RSF and hosts thousands of people who have been displaced by the war. At least 500,000 of those sheltering in the city have been displaced from violence elsewhere in Sudan, according to the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF).
More than 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in El Fasher in recent weeks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
At least 43 people have been killed in and around the city since the escalation of fighting a little over two weeks ago, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Thursday.
RELATED ARTICLESudan on brink of collapse and starvation as country marks one year of civil war
“Recent attacks on more than a dozen villages in western El Fasher have resulted in horrific reports of violence, including sexual violence, children injured and killed, homes set on fire, and destruction of critical civilian supplies and infrastructure,” Russell detailed.
Meanwhile, deliveries of food assistance in Darfur “have been intermittent due to fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles” and at least 1.7 million people within the region are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme.
