Another 2 to 2.5 million people could be suffering from acute malnutrition in Sudan, raising the total to at least 19 million in six months if the conflict continues, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

“The World Food Program predicts that the number of victims of acute food insecurity will increase by 2 to 2.5 million, bringing the total number to 19 million in the next three to six months if the conflict,” he said. Farhan Haq, Deputy Representative of the UN Secretary General.

According to the World Food Program report, by early 2023, 16.8 million Sudanese — out of a population of nearly 50 million — suffered from severe food insecurity, already a million more than a year earlier.

“In May 2023, taking into account the ongoing conflict, we can conservatively estimate that the number of victims of severe food insecurity will increase to at least 19 million (nearly 40% of the population) in three to six months.”

The areas expected to be hardest hit, with more than half of their population already affected, are the states of West Darfur, West Kordofan, Blue Nile, Red Sea and North Darfur.

The report states that in March 2023, 14.8 million households did not have the means to buy “a basket of staple foods” such as sorghum, wheat flour, peanuts. “This is already an alarming statistic,” comments the World Food Programme. But if the conflict continues, the price of this “basic food basket” will rise by 25% in three to six months and 18 million households will no longer be able to buy it.