Sudan could be weeks away from a ‘catastrophic hunger crisis’
Sudan could be just weeks away from a catastrophic famine, aid workers have warned, as community volunteers struggle to feed the hungry amid security restrictions and armed violence.
War between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its former security partners the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum during the final days of Ramadan in April 2023.
It has since spread to large parts of the country, with a violently paranoid security response crippling efforts to deliver aid and exposing local volunteers to arrest and harassment by warring parties.
This year, Ramadan has exposed the severity of the situation, with many people searching for a single meal and clean water to break their fast in the evening.
Anthony Neal, the coordinator for International Non-Governmental Organisations in Sudan, told Sky News: “We are potentially weeks away from a catastrophic hunger crisis in the Darfurs, Kordofans and Khartoum.
“In many ways, we are in the situation where we are confronted with the possibility of famine because of the level of bureaucratic restrictions we have faced over the last 11 months.”
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February: Sudan’s humanitarian crisis explained
Four out of five Darfur states are controlled by the RSF, as well as large areas of Khartoum. Fighting is ongoing in West Kordofan and South Kordofan, southern states that have been cut off from the rest of the country for months.
“Since December, we haven’t been able to move any supplies from Port Sudan to any areas under the control of the RSF,” said Mr Neal.
“To some extent due to conflict insecurity but also because we haven’t been able to receive the necessary permissions from SAF – mostly military intelligence and national security.”
Al-Fashir, North Darfur
Across Sudan, there are 17.7 million people facing acute food insecurity, according to the IPC Acute Food Insecurity classification. Close to five million of them are experiencing emergency levels of hunger and the World Food Programme (WFP) says they are largely in places where humanitarian access is limited due to heavy fighting and restrictions.
SAF has pledged to allow some level of cross border assistance into North Darfur from the Tina crossing in Chad and 60 trucks into Al-Geneina in RSF-held West Darfur from the Adre crossing but that is yet to materialise.
Volunteers from Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) are working in impossible conditions to fill the gap in these areas. Community initiatives borne out of the neighbourhood resistance committees that led protests against military rule in the 2019 revolution are now providing life-saving support in the absence of a state preoccupied by war.
Navigating shelling and airstrikes to buy food
In the residential area Burri in Khartoum, ERR volunteers are navigating shelling and airstrikes to go to markets and buy food to feed 170 families in their area. But market vendors only accept cash and funds are extremely limited.
“Our community kitchen is only able to offer a meal of ful – mashed fava beans – and even that is by the grace of God,” says an ERR volunteer there.
“The community kitchens in the tri-city capital have mostly ceased functioning and even those that are still operating have extremely limited output.”
Earlier this month, Khartoum State Emergency Room confirmed 221 of 300 community kitchens in the state had been suspended due to the continued interruption of telecommunications. This news came just as Ramadan was about to begin.
In North Darfur’s state capital Al-Fashir, where hunger levels are already deadly and thousands have been displaced from other Darfur states, the efforts of ERR volunteers are now paralysed.
Their widespread distribution of clean water, supplies and food to displacement camps, shelters and health centres has ceased with the end of grant assistance.
“The situation during Ramadan is much more difficult as the emergency room has stopped providing any service due to the lack of a grant for any services,” Mohamed told us from Al-Fashir.
“We are now struggling to offer a single meal for people to break their fast.”
State authorities actively restricting volunteers
Mohamed and other ERR volunteers work hard to provide a plate of pasta or rice with meat for people to break their fast at the end of the day.
ERR volunteers are also working with great difficulty in army-held areas.
Ramadan meals in Atbara, River Nile State, for people in living in shelters
Atbara, River Nile State
In another displacement hub, River Nile state capital Atbara, they are providing support to 400 families living in shelters.
“We are doing everything that is possible and everything that is impossible as an individual, group or charitable effort to fill the gap – fighting to provide the displaced with the simplest of necessities for living,” Abeer told us from there.
But not only are state authorities not helping, they are actively restricting volunteer response.
Mr Neal said: “In River Nile state, we have seen a crackdown on local civil society which has restricted a local response at scale to fill gaps in state services.
“They have essentially banned the change in service committees and there has basically been a restriction on the civil society space which does not make it easy for local responders to step up and provide assistance.”
William Carter, the Sudan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Sudan, said: “We have been alarmed by increasing probabilities that millions in Sudan would be facing catastrophic hunger for many months now.
“None of the trend lines that would change this default have materialised – improved macroeconomic situation, reduced fighting and displacement, improved humanitarian access.”
“We’ve been surprised that other parts of the international system have downplayed the famine risks for so long.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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