WFP: There are reports of people dying of hunger in Sudan
The World Food Program (WFP) on Friday said it has received reports of people dying of starvation in Sudan, and has therefore called on the parties involved in the conflict to ensure that food aid reaches those in need.
Leni Kinzli, the spokeswoman for the United Nations in Sudan, told journalists in Geneva via video link that: "Currently, 18 million people were facing severe food shortages, twice as many as last year." He said: "Famine would increase from May. There are reports of people dying of hunger, but those reports should be verified. Millions of people will soon fall into dangerous levels of famine." He called on the actors in the "terrible" conflict, namely the Sudanese Army and the military's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to allow aid to arrive quickly and without obstacles. 3.6 million children under the age of 5 suffer from severe malnutrition, he said, adding that the exact number of hungry children is "impossible" to know due to the inaccessibility of the most affected areas. Kinzli stressed that the United Nations currently has the ability to "send food to only 10 percent of the most hungry people in Sudan" because the other 90 percent are stuck in conflict areas. The civil war started in Sudan on April 15 last year between the country's army led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the leadership of Commander Hamdan Dagalo where until now the international mediation efforts of ending the fighting and persuading the rival parties to sit at the negotiating table have hit a rock. The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs has announced that more than 13,000 people have been killed and another 26,000 injured in the ongoing war in Sudan since last year.
