Sudan has in this century endured genocide, civil war and partition, and now its crisis has worsened. Famine has officially been declared in part of the Darfur region in western Sudan.
Growing starvation has been apparent for many months, so this is in part a failure of the international community to apply adequate pressure on rival parties in Sudan and to provide adequate resources to address the crisis. Far more attention has been directed to conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, and while that is understandable, the upshot is that children are dying unnecessarily in Sudan.
Malnutrition is widespread around the world — about one-fifth of all children globally are physically stunted from inadequate food — but this only very rarely rises to the level of famine. In the 21st century, this is only the third official famine, after one in Somalia in 2011 and one in South Sudan in 2017.
The famine review committee, a group of independent nutrition experts, declared on Thursday that famine had officially arrived at the Zamzam camp, home to about 500,000 displaced people near the city of El Fasher in Darfur.
The cause of the famine is a civil war underway in Sudan between the army and a militia called the Rapid Support Forces, and the obstacles they have placed to impede humanitarian aid workers. Convoys of trucks have been blocked from delivering aid by the armed factions.
The international failure is particularly stark because a generation ago, Darfur was the site of the 21st century’s first genocide, as the Sudanese government backed Arab militias to slaughter members of three non-Arab Black African ethnic groups. Now the Rapid Support Forces, with backing from countries like the United Arab Emirates, are starting over and committing similar atrocities of murder and rape against the same ethnic groups.
Some experts believe that a “repeat genocide” is underway. And whatever term one applies to the conflict in Sudan, this famine is one consequence.
“Families who fled horrific violence have been going hungry for months,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the United Nations, who for many months has been calling attention to the crisis. “Children have been eating dirt and leaves, and every day, babies have been starving to death.”
Nonetheless, she said, the two Sudanese armed factions “have chosen to let the Sudanese people starve, systematically blocking humanitarian corridors.” She called on them to immediately allow access and to attend peace talks scheduled for this month in Switzerland.
Genocide and famine deserve a place on top of the international agenda, and if the armed factions are not listening, we should use every diplomatic and military tool to make them back off and allow humanitarian access.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
