The World Food Program warned that the war that has been going on in Sudan for nearly 11 months “may create the largest hunger crisis in the world” in a country that is already witnessing the largest displacement crisis at the international level.
Director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said that the battles, which left thousands dead and displaced eight million people, “threaten the lives of millions and threaten peace and stability in the entire region.”
She continued, “Twenty years ago, Darfur witnessed the largest hunger crisis in the world, and the world (at that time) united its efforts to confront it, but the Sudanese are forgotten today.”
In the early 2000s, then Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019, launched the “Janjaweed” militia in the sprawling Darfur region in western Sudan, where it practiced a scorched earth policy.
“Janjaweed” or “Janjaweed” is a Sudanese term consisting of two syllables: “Jinn” meaning genie, which means that this genie (man) carries a “Jim 3” machine gun, which is widely spread in Darfur, and “Jawid” meaning horse. The meaning of the word is therefore: a man riding a horse and carrying a machine gun.
Today, this militia is part of the Rapid Support Forces led by Lieutenant General Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, which has been facing a war with the army led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 15, 2023.
Bombing civilians, destroying infrastructure, looting, rape, forced displacement, and burning villages have become daily practices suffered by 48 million Sudanese.
McCain stressed that unless the violence stops, “the war in Sudan may create the largest hunger crisis in the world.”
According to the World Food Programme, less than “5 percent of Sudanese can provide themselves with a full meal” at the present time.
Doctors Without Borders says that a child dies every two hours in Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur.
In South Sudan, where 600,000 people have taken refuge to escape the war, “one in every five children in shelters at the border suffers from malnutrition,” according to McCain.
18 million Sudanese suffer from severe food insecurity, and five million of them are on the brink of famine, while the humanitarian relief workers who help them suffer from difficulties in movement and a significant lack of funding.
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