Hunger now just as deadly as bullets for Sudanese civilians trapped in conflict

Millions of Sudanese, esepcially those displaced by the conflict, are going hungry and malnutrition is rife as fighting limits their access to food. (Reuters)
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Updated 27 July 2023
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Hunger now just as deadly as bullets for Sudanese civilians trapped in conflict

  • Four months of fighting have turned lives upside down, limiting access to food and forcing people from their homes
  • Food imports and agriculture have faced severe disruption, pushing up prices and leaving supermarket shelves bare

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN: As Sudan’s conflict heads toward its fifth month, a dire humanitarian crisis looms with thousands of people, many of them residents of the capital Khartoum, facing the prospect of death by starvation and malnutrition.

The tragic passing of Khaled Senhouri, a well-known violinist, who recently succumbed to hunger in Omdurman, highlighted the predicament of civilians for whom lack of food and water can be just as deadly as bullets.

With intermittent electricity, dwindling food supplies, and limited access to essential resources, Sudanese in Khartoum and other violence-torn towns and cities are locked in a desperate fight for survival.

In a heart-wrenching online post shortly before his death, Senhouri described the reality of life under siege. Unable to leave home to procure food because of the fighting, his was a despair now shared by countless others.

“Obtaining even meager supplies is a challenge, compounded by the constant threat of bullets and the scarcity of cash, electricity, water, and gas,” Yasir Hassan, a 45-year-old Khartoum resident, told Arab News.

Since the outbreak of violence in Khartoum on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, the nation’s food imports and domestic agriculture have faced severe disruptions, leaving supermarket shelves bare.

Most markets, shops, and petrol stations are closed, and even basic commodities like cooking gas are scarce and exorbitantly priced on the black market.

In the face of such scarcity, the price of essential items has skyrocketed, with the cost of lamb reaching a staggering $91 per kilogram. Poultry meat is almost nonexistent, while fruit and vegetables are disappearing from the market.




Clashes since April 15 have disrupted supply chains and caused food shortages in Sudan. (AP)

Tomatoes, cucumbers, and other fresh ingredients now cost a fortune, leaving families with no choice but to endure hunger and malnutrition.

The UN says 25 million people – more than half Sudan’s population – need food and 13.6 million children are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

More than 19 million people, which accounts for 40 percent of the population, are already experiencing hunger. The World Food Programme says it has reached more than 1.4 million people with emergency food aid as needs intensify.

Fighting in the capital – three cities built around the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri – has heavily affected areas housing important state or military installations.

The Darfur region, already ravaged by brutal conflict in the early 2000s, has seen some of the worst of the violence. Fighting there has recently concentrated around Nyala, after clashes in El-Geneina where the UN had reported atrocities.

A series of ceasefires brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US in indirect negotiations in the early stages of the conflict have gone ignored or not fully respected by the dueling factions. 

As a result, many Sudanese workers have gone unpaid for four consecutive months. The collapse of the banking system and the lack of cash liquidity due to the conflict have left families burdened with debts and unable to meet their basic needs.

The health sector is also grappling with immense challenges. Attacks on health workers have put the few remaining hospitals in Khartoum at risk. The scarcity of medicines and difficulty in accessing treatment have further aggravated the crisis.




An aerial view of refugee camp of Sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. (Reuters)

The International Rescue Committee warns that the country is hurtling toward a man-made food crisis, which could grow worse in the coming year if global food price inflation continues on its current trajectory.

Farmers in several states across Sudan say the conflict is disrupting the production of staple crops like sorghum and millet, which aid agencies say could drive the nation deeper into hunger and poverty.

Even though many agricultural areas in Sudan are relatively calm and not directly affected by the fighting, delays have been caused by factors such as a lack of credit.

Banks have been looted in Khartoum and supply chains have faced disruption, impacting the availability of crucial agricultural resources like fertilizers, seeds, and fuel. Several warehouses storing these inputs have also been plundered.

Big commercial farmers, who are responsible for a significant portion of the sorghum production, are particularly affected as they struggle to access fuel, fertilizers, and other resources necessary for timely planting.

The fertile land between the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers is now home to several hundred thousands of the 2.6 million people displaced by the conflict. Desperate people and criminal opportunists are exploiting the security vacuum to steal from stores and empty homes.

Given that around 65 percent of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector, disruptions in farming activities have wide-ranging implications for Sudan’s economy and the well-being of its people.

This crisis has led to a significant reduction in crop yields and a scarcity of essential food supplies across the country. The cumulative effects of these disruptions are likely to result in further malnutrition, starvation, and an increase in preventable diseases.

INNUMBERS

* 3,900 people killed since violence began on April 15. (ACLED)

* 2.6m internally displaced persons, mostly from Khartoum. (IOM)

* 1/3 of population faced hunger before fighting began. (WFP)

The fighting has cut off access to essential resources and supply chains, making it almost impossible for humanitarian aid organizations to reach people in remote areas, particularly the troubled Darfur region.

Vulnerable populations, including pregnant and lactating women, infants and children, the sick and the elderly, are bearing the brunt of the catastrophe.

“I’ve met war widows and mothers with very young babies or infants who don’t have enough food to produce breast milk and feed their babies,” William Carter, head of the Sudan office for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Arab News.

“In the near future, a malnutrition crisis is looming. The availability of locally produced food is likely to decrease. People have been forced to leave everything behind, and with limited access to resources or income, they are unable to meet even their basic needs.”




Sudanese girls who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Against this backdrop, international aid agencies, such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, have begun distributing seeds for staple crops such as sorghum, millet, groundnut, and sesame to bridge the impending gap in production.

“But more seeds are needed,” Salah Omar, executive director of the SPACES Organization based in Al-Jazirah state, southeast of Khartoum, told Arab News.

“Displaced people are very vulnerable. Their main work is farming. They could grow crops with local people here (in Al-Jazirah). It’s not too late to plant the seeds. We need more help for food production.”

The crisis not only poses a threat to livelihoods and public health. The collapse of Sudan’s food exports is also taking a toll on the country’s foreign currency reserves.

Cash crops like sesame and peanuts contributed significantly to export revenues, providing much-needed foreign currency for importing basic commodities.

Furthermore, regional networks have been impacted due to border controls and import difficulties, adding to the complexity of the situation.

Disruption to imports and exports is also having an impact on Sudan’s neighbors, straining international aid efforts and potentially destabilizing the wider region.

“NRC along with others is striving to address the issue by facilitating people’s access to local markets, for example through cash distribution,” said Carter.




Pregnant women and mothers, children, the sick and elderly are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. (Reuters)

In some instances, local groups have teamed up with international partners to meet the immediate needs of communities caught up in the fighting.

In central Bahri, a suburb north of Khartoum, a local group called the “Danakla Committee” — part of Sudan’s grassroots pro-democracy movement — has begun taking donations in order to meet the needs of local people trapped in their homes.

For those not receiving assistance, only an end to the fighting will alleviate their misery.

“If things continue as they are, we fear the humanitarian crisis will only escalate,” Khartoum resident Hassan told Arab News.

“Without food aid, we are left with nothing to eat. We urgently need an end to this war.”


Paramilitary attack on Sudan famine-hit camp kills 25: activists

Updated 56 min 28 sec ago
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Paramilitary attack on Sudan famine-hit camp kills 25: activists

  • Shelling and intense gunfire targeted the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher on Friday

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday killed 25 civilians including women and children, in an attack on a famine-stricken camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state, activists said.
The attack, which involved shelling and intense gunfire, “targeted Zamzam displacement camp from both the southern and eastern directions,” said the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group in North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher.
Zamzam and other densely populated camps for the displaced around El-Fasher have suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF.
The paramilitaries have stepped up its efforts to complete their conquest of Darfur, Sudan’s vast western region, since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.
Eyewitnesses described seeing RSF combat vehicles infiltrating the camp under cover of heavy gunfire.
The local resistance committee said the attack was met with counter-fire but the full extent of damage was unclear due to disrupted communications and Internet shutdowns.
Zamzam was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year.
The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war on April 15, 2023.


More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

Updated 11 April 2025
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More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

  • Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year

GENEVA: Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.
Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has fueled what UN officials call the world’s most devastating aid crisis.
While some have recently returned home to Khartoum, millions of others in neighboring countries like Egypt and Chad face tough choices as services for refugees are being cut, including by the United States as part of an aid review.
Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year.
Around 937 others were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya — more than double last year’s figures for the same period, she added.
“As humanitarian aid crumbles and if the war does not abate, many more will have little choice than to join them,” she said.
Migrant deaths hit a record last year, the UN migration agency said, with many perishing on the Mediterranean crossing which is one of the world’s most dangerous.


UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

Updated 1 min 56 sec ago
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UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

  • UN rights office spokesperson warns the military strikes across Gaza were ‘leaving nowhere safe’
  • Israel has said its troops are seizing ‘large areas’ in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants

GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday said it analysis of 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

The UN rights office also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani warned the military strikes across Gaza were “leaving nowhere safe.”

“Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people,” she told reporters in Geneva.

“In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children,” she said.

“Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office,” she added.

Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

She highlighted that even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli “evacuation orders” were also being subjected to attacks.

“Despite Israeli military orders instructing civilians to relocate to the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, strikes continued on tents in that area housing displaced people, with at least 23 such incidents recorded by the Office since 18 March,” she said.

Shamdasani referred to a March 31 order by the Israeli military covering all of Rafah, the southernmost governorate in Gaza, followed by a large-scale ground operation.

Israel has said its troops are seizing “large areas” in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

“Large areas are being seized and added to Israel’s security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated,” Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday.

“Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to displacement of the population of Gaza into ever shrinking spaces,” Shamdasani said.

“The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity.”


WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

Updated 11 April 2025
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WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

  • Lack of medicine making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational

GENEVA: Medicine stocks are critically low due to the aid block in Gaza, making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
“We are critically low in our three warehouses, on antibiotics, IV fluids and blood bags,” WHO official Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.


Yemen ‘not a battleground for settling scores,’ says top government official

Updated 11 April 2025
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Yemen ‘not a battleground for settling scores,’ says top government official

  • Brig. Gen. Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh calls for stronger support for Yemeni forces on the ground to restore balance

DUBAI: Yemen is “not a battleground for settling scores, nor part of any external compromises,” a top government official told Asharq Al-Awsat in an exclusive interview.

Brig. Gen. Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council with vice-presidential rank, further emphasized that diminishing the country to a pawn between powerful nations engaged in political play undermines its sovereignty and regional security.

“The world would be making a mistake by accepting Yemen as a bargaining chip in Iranian negotiations,” said Saleh, who also heads the Political Bureau of the National Resistance. He also emphasized Yemen’s strategic importance to global shipping routes.

Saleh has remained largely out of public view since the US intensified its air campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthis to stop the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

He further warned that keeping Yemen “a base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard” threatens not only Yemenis but also regional and international interests.

But achieving stability in the conflict-ridden country hinges on supporting a national state rooted in constitutional rule and genuine popular consensus, not on short-term geopolitical deals, Saleh added.

He called for stronger support for Yemeni forces on the ground to restore balance, not as a tool for escalation, but because it is a national imperative to protect civilians and preserve hard-won gains.

He said the Yemeni government was in ongoing coordination with international partners and the Saudi-led coalition backing legitimacy in Yemen to secure further assistance for the national struggle.

Cooperation with regional and international partners to bolster the country’s coast guard, particularly in the Red Sea, a strategic artery for global trade, also continues, the Yemeni official said.

Maritime security cannot be separated from national sovereignty, and defending sea lanes was integral to restoring state authority on land and at sea, Saleh said.

On achieving peace in Yemen, Saleh said: “There is no meaning to any settlement that does not subject the Houthis to the Yemeni constitution and the rule of law.” He discounted any notion that the militia group could be accommodated outside a constitutional framework.

“Peace cannot be granted to a group that rejects the state,” he said. “It is forged when the state regains the capacity to enforce the law and protect its citizens.”

For Saleh, forging a peace agreement with the Houthis — whom he describes as a bloodthirsty group with no commitment to national frameworks and an ideology rooted in an enemy state — was virtually nonexistent.

He accused the Houthis of placing their leadership and institutions tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps above Yemen’s state institutions.

“Governance is about managing people’s affairs based on shared frameworks,” Saleh said. “The Houthis do not abide by any of that.”

Saleh has put direct blame on Iran for perpetuating the conflict through its armed proxies, keeping Yemen hostage to violence and rebellion, although Tehran has continually denied its involvement.

Saleh also acknowledged the challenges facing the Presidential Leadership Council, and described the internal disagreements as “natural,” given the complexity of the crisis in Yemen.

“In the end,” he said, “what unites us is greater than any differences.

“Disagreements are natural in any leadership body, particularly in exceptional conditions like Yemen’s,” he said. “But more important is our ability to navigate this diversity and divergence while remaining committed to the national interest.”