Sudan’s government, loyal to military commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been repeatedly accused of obstructing international efforts to assess the war-torn country’s food security situation.
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Sudan’s government on Sunday strongly rejected a United Nations-backed report that found hunger was widespread in five regions of the war-torn country.
The review of the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) used by the United Nations agency follows repeated warnings from the United Nations, other aid groups and the United States about the hunger situation in the northeast African country.
Last week, the IPC announced that the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has left 638,000 people hungry and a further 8.1 million on the brink of mass starvation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the military-aligned government “categorically rejects the IPC’s description of the situation in Sudan as famine.”
The statement said the report was “speculative in nature” and accused the IPC of procedural and transparency deficiencies.
The team said it did not have access to the latest field data and did not consult government technical teams on the final version before publishing it.
IPC did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment. The IPC says on its website that its process is “evidence-based” and ensures “rigorous and impartial analysis.”
On August 1, the IPC had already declared famine in the displaced Zamzam camp near El Fasher, a city in Sudan’s western Darfur region, which is besieged by the RSF.
“Rumors of famine in Sudan are completely fabricated,” Salwa Adam Benya, the government’s humanitarian secretary, said at a press conference in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, Sudan’s state news agency reported.
He, along with representatives from the agriculture, media and foreign ministries, said some aid agencies were promoting a political agenda “under the guise of food.”
The Sudanese government is loyal to army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and has been based in Port Sudan since fighting began in April 2023, turning the capital Khartoum into a fighting zone.
It has been repeatedly accused of obstructing international efforts to assess the food security situation.
Authorities have also been accused of creating bureaucratic obstacles to humanitarian work and blocking visas for foreign teams.
“Just a ceasefire.”
The charity International Rescue Committee, which has described Sudan as the “biggest humanitarian crisis in history,” said the military “used its status as an internationally recognized government (and that the United Nations and other agencies were unable to reach RSF-held areas)”. “To prevent this,” he said.
In October, UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts accused both countries of using “starvation tactics” and called on the military and RSF to “immediately stop obstructing aid supplies in Sudan.” did.
Last month, the World Food Program said Sudan was at risk of sliding into its largest hunger crisis in recent history.
At the same time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $200 million in new funding for Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, with people in parts of the country forced to eat grass and peanut shells to survive. He said that he is no longer getting any benefits.
Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 12 million people to flee their homes, with millions facing a worsening hunger crisis.
More than 24.6 million people, around half the country’s population, face “high levels of acute food insecurity” and “only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of further hunger,” the IPC said.
