The UN’s hunger monitoring system found that famine continues in the camp and is likely to last until October.
A report by the International Agency for Food Security says the civil war in Sudan and restrictions on aid deliveries have led to a famine in at least one migrant camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region.
A UN-backed report on Thursday said parts of North Darfur, particularly Zamzam camp, are likely experiencing “worst hunger,” known as IPC Level 5, an internationally recognized standard known as the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC).
IPC Stage 5 is determined in areas where more than 1 in 5 people or 1 in 5 households face severe hunger and poverty due to severe food insecurity, ultimately leading to severe acute malnutrition and death.
This is the third time a famine determination has been made since the system was introduced 20 years ago.
The IPC Partnership includes more than a dozen UN agencies, aid organizations and governments who use the IPC as a global reference for analysing food and nutrition crises.
The report shows that deaths from hunger and disease are rising in Sudan, where more than 15 months of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, have created the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, with 25 million people, half the population, in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
The Famine Review Commission (FRC) report found that famine persists in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people and is likely to continue until at least October.
Sudan: Famine confirmed in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, home to 220,000 displaced people. Thirteen other regions across Sudan are at risk.
Immediate humanitarian assistance is needed to prevent the crisis from worsening or spreading.
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Zamzam has a population of 500,000. It is located near the city of el-Fasher, which has 1.8 million people, and is the last major resistance to the RSF in all of Darfur. The RSF has surrounded the area and no support has been provided to the huge camp for months.
The FRC said similar situations were likely affecting other parts of Darfur, including the migrant camps of Abu Shuq and Al Salam.
On Thursday, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, condemned what it called “repeated attacks on health facilities” in El Fashir.
“The organization urges all parties to respect health facilities and civilians and allow urgent food and medicine supplies to reach the area,” MSF said in a statement.
The group warned that children in the area were “on the brink of death” due to limited food and medical supplies.
Reuters reported that some Sudanese were forced to eat leaves and dirt, and satellite images showed that graveyards were growing rapidly as hunger and disease spread.
A Reuters analysis of satellite images has identified 14 burial sites in Darfur that have expanded rapidly in recent months. One cemetery in Zamzam grew 50 percent faster between March 28 and May 3 than in the previous three and a half months.
The FRC used the analysis as indirect evidence of increased mortality.
