Sudan, now facing the threat of mass starvation after nearly a year of war, is suffering “one of the worst humanitarian disasters” in modern history, a senior United Nations official warned Wednesday, criticizing the inaction of the international community.

“By all accounts, the scale of humanitarian needs, the number of people who have been forcibly displaced and are at risk of starvation, Sudan is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history,” said Edem Wasornou, addressing the Security Council. which represented the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Martin Griffiths.

“A humanitarian travesty is being played out in Sudan under a veil of international indifference and inaction. To put it simply, we have abandoned the Sudanese people,” he said, describing the “despair” of the population.

The fighting that has raged since April 15, 2023 between the armed forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the former number two of the military junta, has claimed the lives of thousands of people and forcibly displaced over 8 million others, according to the UN.

The Security Council called in early March for an “immediate” ceasefire during Ramadan and unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

But “since then I am forced to say with sadness that there has been no major progress in the field”, emphasized Edem Wasornou.

The US announced at the same time that it will allocate 47 million dollars to provide humanitarian aid.

These funds will be directed to countries neighboring Sudan, including Chad and South Sudan, to help them host Sudanese refugees, US diplomat Juliet Waltz Noyce explained during her meeting with Chad’s prime minister.

In total, almost 18 million Sudanese are facing acute food insecurity (phase 3 and higher of the five-point international IPC scale), a tragic record number, especially during the harvest season, 10 million higher than that recorded in the corresponding period of last year. And 730,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition.

In his note obtained by AFP and distributed to member states of the Security Council last week, Martin Griffiths underlined that 5 million Sudanese are at risk of slipping into a state of “catastrophic food insecurity in the coming months”.

“If we want to prevent” the risk of “the worst food crisis in the world” breaking out in Sudan, then “coordinated efforts are urgent and absolutely necessary”, insisted yesterday the deputy director general of the World Food Program (WFP) Karl Skau, underlining that there is “high risk” of many Sudanese being in phase 5 of the IPC scale (famine) in May.

Malnutrition is “already costing the lives of children”, emphasized Edem Wasornou.

And “our partners estimate that in the coming weeks and months, some 222,000 children may die of malnutrition,” he insisted, also highlighting the risk of weakened children dying from diseases that could have been prevented or treated, as 70% of the country’s health structures no longer works.