Bullet Or Hunger ... Two Dangerous Choices For Sudanese People

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) News report by Mohammad Abdulaziz
KHARTOUM, Feb 14 (KUNA) -- With famine looming ahead in Sudan, more than 18 million people are reportedly facing emergency levels of hunger, double the figure from last year in this northeast African country.
Shockingly and heartbreakingly, a child dies of malnourishment every couple of hours in a bitter and painful reflection of 10 months of the country's civil war between army and paramilitary troops.
Malnourishment is already affecting millions of people in Darfur, notably at the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, leaving people with only two dangerous choices; dying by bullets or due to hunger.
Zamzam, which was established during Darfur's first major civil war in 2003, was home to about 400,000 people before the current war.
Thirteen children die of malnourishment every day at Zamzam displacement camp alone, Spokesman of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Coordination Adam Rajal told KUNA.
Rajal cautioned that if war continued unabated, a whole generation would be lost, citing warring parties' reluctance to open safe relief aid corridors.
He sounded the alarm that famine could hit IDPs camps in Darfur, which has been relying on humanitarian and relief aid for nearly 20 years, noting that the World Food Program (PFP) decided 10 months ago to suspend its relief aid to IDPs camps.
This has unfortunately claimed more lives of children, women and old people as a result of shortage of food, the Spokesman of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Coordination deplored.
Omar Saleh, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Aid Mechanism, a nongovernmental aid agency, told KUNA that food safety is based on several elements, primarily food availability, which faces security problems in delivering aid.
However, a communications network blackout in Sudan has added fuel to fire by hobbing aid deliveries and leaving the war-weary population of almost 50 million unable to make payments, he said.
For his part, Yousef Ahmad, a member of the Emergency Rooms, a group of volunteers that seeks to help in re-operating health facilities and delivering food to affected people, said the group is now in financial trouble, not to mention shortage of food.
All indications show that the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, is most likely to face imminent famine unless safe humanitarian, mainly food, aid corridors are opened, he told KUNA.
"We are running short of food stocks, with prices skyrocketing by more than 100 percent amid the widening scale of fighting and looting, along with uneasy flow of commodities in flashpoints in the capital," he deplored.
At least 700,000 children in Sudan are likely to suffer from the worst form of malnutrition this year, and tens of thousands could die, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) has warned.
"The consequences of the past 300 days means that more than 700,000 children are likely to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition this year," UNICEF's Spokesman James Elder warned.
"UNICEF won't be able to treat more than 300,000 of those without improved access and without additional support. In that case, tens of thousands would likely die," Elder said.
UNICEF provides ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), a life-saving food item that treats severe wasting in children under five years old, to Sudan.
The UN children's agency is appealing for USD 840 million to help slightly more than 7.5 million children in Sudan this year, but Elder deplored the lack of funds collected in previous appeals.
Meanwhile, the WFP said it is currently able to provide regular food assistance to only one in 10 people facing emergency levels of acute hunger in Sudan.
It underlined that humanitarian convoys must be allowed to cross frontlines in order to reach those trapped in conflict hotspots.
However, it has become nearly impossible for aid agencies to cross due to security threats, roadblocks, and demands for fees and taxes, it stressed.
The armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abde Fattah Al-Burhan and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohammed Dagalo (known as 'Hemedti') started in April 2023.
The 10-month infighting has so far left at least 13,000 people dead, 33,000 injured and around 11 million others internally displaced. (end)
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