Four million Sudanese to suffer dangerous food insecurity between now and September; UNOCHA reporting over 102,700 displaced by Jebel Marra violence

Conflict, below average farming production and poor pastureland conditions are among the causes of this food shortage (1).  And as anyone who follows Sudan in the news knows, prices for food and cooking supplies have gone up enough to hurt households nationwide (2).

So over the next six months or so, even if they receive food aid, people in the Jebel Marra area in Darfur and rebel-controlled areas of South Kordofan State are expected to suffer food gaps, acute malnutrition and deaths as a result of food insecurity, or at least to be forced to sacrifice a great deal of their livelihood assets in order to eat (3).  And even if people in much of North Darfur State, North Kordofan, Red Sea State receive food aid, they are still expected to endure above average acute malnutrition rates, or to be compelled to give up more and more of their livelihood assets in order to get food (Ibid.).

And according to UNOCHA, as of March 6, aid agencies have reported a total of 102,753 people displaced by violence in Jebel Marra (1), and that : “There are also unconfirmed reports of up to an additional 70,000 IDPs [internally displaced persons] in Central Darfur as a result of the Jebel Marra conflict.  The UN and partners have been unable to verify this reported displacement due to lack of access (1, page 1).”

1. UNOCHA Humanitarian Bulletin Sudan, Issue 10, 29 February – 6 March:  http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/OCHA_Sudan_Weekly_Humanitarian_Bulletin_Issue_10_%2829_February_-_6_March_2016%29.pdf
2. Radio Dabanga, March 10, 2016, “Basic commodity prices continue to rise in Sudan”:  https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/basic-commodity-prices-continue-to-rise-in-sudan
3. The first of these two categories is the Level 4 (Emergency) classification, and the other is the Level 3 (Crisis) classification as defined by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-Net), which is a collection of US government agencies and companies that monitors food security in about thirty-five countries.  See:  http://www.fews.net/