A third of Sudan's population faces hunger crisis: U.N. food agency

It has attributed the crisis to the compounded impact of climate shocks, political turmoil and rising global food prices

A third of Sudan' population is currently facing a food crisis due to the compounded impact of climate shocks, political turmoil and rising global food prices, the U.N. food agency said Thursday.

A joint report by the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said that 15 million people face acute food insecurity across all of the East African country's 18 provinces.

“The combined effects of conflict, climate shocks, economic and political crises, rising costs and poor harvests are pushing millions of people deeper into hunger and poverty,’ said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s representative in Sudan.

Living conditions rapidly deteriorated across cash-strapped Sudan since an October military coup sent an already fragile economy into free-fall, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine compounding the economic pain.

Funding levels fall short of meeting humanitarian needs in Sudan, where 40% of the population is expected to slip into food insecurity by September, the report said.

"We must act now to avoid increasing hunger levels and to save the lives of those already affected,” Rowe said.

The October 25 military takeover upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after three decades of repression and international isolation under autocratic President Omar al-Bashir. Sudan has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.