Key Points
- Sudan’s withdrawal from hunger monitoring undermines humanitarian response efforts.
- Civil war drives food insecurity and hampers data collection.
- Critics accuse the government of ignoring the hunger crisis for political reasons.
Just before a report that is anticipated to show famine spreading throughout the nation, the Sudanese government withdrew from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, a global program that tracks and reports on hunger crises. Agriculture Minister Hafiz Ismail blasted the IPC in a letter dated December 23 for disseminating faulty results that “undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity.”
Sudan exits global hunger-monitoring system amid famine escalation
As stated by Reuters, famine has spread to five places and may reach ten by May, according to the IPC report, which is due on Tuesday. The report cites limited humanitarian access and the ongoing civil strife as the main causes. According to a briefing document seen by Reuters, “this marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis.”
An IPC representative chose not to comment. Sudan’s action, according to critics, will undermine global efforts to confront one of the biggest famine crises in history. An unidentified leader of an NGO working in Sudan stated, “Withdrawal from the IPC system won’t change the reality of hunger on the ground.”
“The international community is deprived of its compass to navigate the hunger crisis in Sudan.”
Civil conflict disrupts data collection in famine-hit regions
Since the civil war broke out in April 2023, which pitted the government-backed military against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, Sudan’s famine situation has gotten worse. The IPC’s capacity to determine the extent of food insecurity has been hampered by the conflict’s disruption of data collecting in disputed areas.
Famine assessments were postponed for months in certain areas, such as the internally displaced people’s camp in Zamzam, where people had to eat tree leaves to survive.Â
In the letter of withdrawal, Sudan’s government stated that crop production estimates and updated data on malnutrition, especially from RSF-held areas, were missing from the next IPC report.Â
IPC efforts in other countries have faced comparable difficulties. Governments in Ethiopia, Yemen, and Myanmar have restricted or changed IPC data, citing fears about political fallout or worries about sovereignty.
The World Peace Foundation’s executive director, Alex de Waal, denounced Sudan’s action as continuing a decades-old practice of ignoring hunger in order to preserve national honor.
“They view any famine in Sudan as an insult to their sovereignty,” de Waal stated. “The lives of their citizens are not as important to them as their pride and power.”
As the crisis worsens, millions of people may be at risk of increasing food insecurity as a result of Sudan’s exit from the IPC, which is predicted to impede coordinated humanitarian assistance.
