Famine Threat Looms Over Southern Khartoum, Warns World Food Programme
WFP urges immediate international action as hunger levels reach crisis point in Jabal Awliya and other war-torn areas of Sudan.
Watan-The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday that famine threatens several areas south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, urging immediate international intervention. The program recorded “severe” levels of hunger in Jabal Awliya, a city located about 40 kilometers south of Khartoum, according to Laurent Bukera, WFP’s Country Director in Sudan, speaking via video from Port Sudan during the UN’s regular briefing in Geneva.
Bukera said the “needs are enormous,” following his recent return from Khartoum state, where the WFP opened a new field office in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the opposite bank of the Nile River.
“We witnessed widespread destruction, limited access to water, healthcare, and electricity, along with a cholera outbreak. In some areas, life is slowly returning to normal, but many neighborhoods remain deserted,” he noted.
He added that “several southern districts of the city face a serious risk of famine” and called on the international community to“act immediately by increasing funding to prevent famine in the hardest-hit areas and investing in Sudan’s reconstruction.”
Bukera emphasized that in Jabal Awliya,“hunger, misery, and despair are overwhelming—famine is a real threat.”
Since mid-April 2023, Sudan’s civil war has resulted in thousands of deaths and sparked what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Bukera warned that as displaced people return to devastated regions like Khartoum, pressure on scarce resources will increase, making the situation even more alarming for the WFP, which sees food and basic supply delivery as “essential and urgent.”
Famine Already Declared in Five Sudanese Areas
Famine has already been officially declared in five regions across Sudan, including three displacement camps near El Fasher, in southwestern Sudan. However, the UN has not been able to formally declare famine in El Fasher, the last regional capital in Darfur not under Rapid Support Forces control, due to a lack of reliable data—though this does not mean people aren’t dying of hunger there.
An estimated 25 million people across Sudan are now suffering from acute food insecurity, according to the latest UN reports.
