There is no time to waste as hunger stalks millions in Sudan amid intense fighting and denial of access

Time is running out for the millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of starvation, displaced from their land, living under bombardment and cut off from humanitarian aid.

With the conflict now in its second year, 18 million people are acutely hungry, including 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished, and starvation is fast approaching for millions of people in Darfur, Kordofan, Aj Jazirah and Khartoum.

Sudan is home to the largest number of internally displaced persons in the world, almost 10 million of them. An additional 2 million people fled to neighboring countries.

Horrific attacks on civilians – including sexual violence – as well as hospitals and schools are multiplying.

In Al Fasher, more than 800,000 civilians are preparing for an imminent, large-scale attack, which would cause catastrophic humanitarian consequences both in the city and throughout Darfur.

Despite the enormous needs, aid workers continue to face systematic obstruction and deliberate denial of access to the parties to the conflict. Movements across the conflict lines into parts of Khartoum, Darfur, Aj Jazirah and Kordofan have almost ceased since mid-December. The closure of the Adra border crossing in February – our main route into western Sudan from Chad – means that limited aid is leaking into Darfur. Aid workers are killed, injured and harassed, and aid supplies are looted.

In March and April of this year, almost 860,000 people were denied humanitarian aid in the states of Kordofan, Darfur and Khartoum. The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid that leaves the civilian population without the basic necessities of life violates international humanitarian law.

Extreme hunger is developing and the outlook for food production in 2024 is bleak. We have a rapidly diminishing deadline to get seeds to farmers before the end of the main planting season and the start of the rainy season. If we act in time, people – especially those in inaccessible areas – will be able to produce food locally and prevent food shortages in the next six months. Without immediate action, people will starve and be forced to move in search of food, shelter and protection.

Let's be clear: if we are prevented from providing aid quickly and on a large scale, more people will die.

Without immediate and major change, we will face a nightmare scenario: Famine will take over large parts of the country. More people will flee to neighboring countries in search of survival and security. More children will succumb to disease and malnutrition. Women and girls, who already bear the brunt of the conflict, will face even greater suffering and danger.

To prevent these worst-case scenarios, we, the Directors of the Interagency Standing Committee, urgently request the parties to the conflict to do the following:

1. Take urgent measures to protect civilians, including refraining from targeting them, allowing them to move to safer areas, and stopping sexual and gender-based violence.
2. Provide unhindered humanitarian access to all possible cross-border and cross-border routes to enable civilians to receive humanitarian aid.
3. Cease immediately all actions that deny, impede and obstruct, or politicize humanitarian action.
4. Simplify and speed up administrative and bureaucratic procedures related to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
5. De-escalate the situation in Al Fasher and adopt a nationwide ceasefire.
6. Stop human rights violations, including grave violations against children, and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.

We are also concerned about limited donor support. Almost five months into the year – and six weeks after the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbors in Paris on April 15 – we have received only 16 percent of the $2.7 billion we need.

Donors must urgently disburse the funds pledged in Paris and expedite additional funding for the humanitarian appeal. With famine on the horizon, we now need to deliver much more life-saving aid, including seeds to farmers before the planting season ends.

The clock is ticking. The choice is clear.

Signatories:

• Martin Griffiths, Emergency Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• Mrs. Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, Secretary General, CARE International
• dr. Qu Dongyu, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• Mr Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
• Mrs. Amy E. Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Mr. Tom Hart, President and Chief Executive Officer, Interaction
• Ms. Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
• Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
• Paula Gaviria Betancur, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (SR on displaced HR)
• Mr Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Mrs. Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Save the children
• Mr. Michal Mlynár, Acting Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (A-Habitat)
• Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
• Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
• Ms. Sima Bahous, Deputy Secretary General and Executive Director, UN Women
• Mrs. Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP)
• Dr. AS Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization (WHO)
• Mr Andrew Morley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, World Vision International