Khartoum - Gaza: Europe and the Arabs

A new report published by the United Nations warned of the worsening global hunger crisis, as millions of people around the world suffer from severe food insecurity. The report indicated that conflicts and climate change have led to a sharp increase in the number of hungry people, especially in areas such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received this Friday morning

Following the publication of the report yesterday, Thursday, three UN officials spoke via video to journalists in New York, where they provided a briefing on the semi-annual update of the Global Report on Food Crises for 2024, which covers the period until the end of August 2024.

The UN officials stressed the urgent need to increase humanitarian funding and work to address the root causes of food crises, such as conflicts and climate change, in order to prevent the situation from worsening and avoid wider famines.

At the beginning of the briefing, Mr. Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), provided an overview of the main findings of the report.
The report shows that acute food insecurity remains remarkably high, becoming more extreme in some places and spreading to new areas driven by conflict, the effects of El Niño and economic downturns.

While food insecurity is declining in some contexts, new situations are emerging in others, with the number of people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity (famine) doubling from 705,000 in five countries and territories in 2023 to 1.9 million in four countries or territories in 2024. This is the highest number recorded by the Global Report on Food Crises, largely due to conflict in the Gaza Strip and Sudan, according to Máximo Torero.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has five phases, with “crisis” or acute food insecurity being the third phase of the classification. Phase 4 is emergency, and Phase 5 is catastrophe or famine.
Torero said that intensifying conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, as well as El Niño-related drought and high local food prices, are likely to increase the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 18 countries compared to 2023.
Famine persists in Zamzam IDP camp
In Sudan, Mr. Maximo Torero said that famine persists in Zamzam IDP camp near El Fasher in North Darfur State, and is expected to continue until October 2024. He warned that many other areas across Sudan are also at risk of famine due to ongoing violence and limited humanitarian assistance. The UN official added that the conflict continues to cause a rapid deterioration in food security in Sudan, with an estimated 26% more people facing high levels of acute food insecurity during the lean period from June to September, compared to June 2023, with some 25.6 million people classified as experiencing crisis levels or worse, including some 755,300 people expected to face catastrophe levels - that is, famine - by September 2024.

The conflict in Sudan has cast a shadow over food security in neighboring countries such as Chad and South Sudan, according to Mr. Maximo Torero.

As for the situation in Gaza, Torero says that the food crisis remains the most severe in the history of the Global Report on Food Crises, with nearly 2.2 million people still in dire need of food and assistance during the period between March and April. The crisis has intensified, with half the population facing famine during this period, up from a quarter between December 2023 and February 2024.

This figure is expected to fall to 22% of the population – around 495,000 people – between June and September 2024, and the available evidence does not point to famine, although the risk of famine remains.

On the positive side, Mr. Maximo Torero said that improved harvests and economic stability had led to improvements in food security in 16 countries.

Of these 16, five countries – Afghanistan, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala and Lebanon – saw the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity fall by at least one million since the peak in 2023, but all remain in crisis mode.
On the actions needed to improve food security, Arif Husain, WFP’s Chief Economist, cited two things he said were urgently needed: access to people in need and sustainable financing. “It’s not enough to have one of these two things. If you have access alone, it’s not enough, if you have money alone, it’s not enough. You need both. Because if you have access without money, you have nothing to offer, and if you have money without access, you have nothing to offer. So we’re trying to make sure that we have sustainable access and financing so that we can help people in need, whether in Gaza, in Sudan or elsewhere,” he said. Another problem, Arif Husain said, was “funding fatigue” – a reference to donor fatigue. He stressed the need to address the root causes of food insecurity, whether climate or conflict, “because unless we address the root causes, we can’t expect needs to go down.”

Dr. Victor Aguayo, UNICEF’s Director of Nutrition and Child Development, spoke in his briefing about wasting as the most life-threatening form of malnutrition in children. He said that wasting remains very high among children living in countries experiencing food crises.
This, according to the UN official, is due to families’ inability to access or afford nutritious foods for their children, as well as their inability to access health, nutrition, water and sanitation services.
Victor Aguayo said that the global report highlights an alarming increase in child wasting, with critical levels in eight countries: Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Haiti, Sudan, Syria, Uganda and Yemen.
The UNICEF Director of Nutrition and Child Development said that he visited Gaza last week and saw first-hand how months of war on civilians and severe restrictions on the humanitarian response have led to the collapse of food, health and protection systems, with catastrophic consequences for children’s nutrition. He described the diet of young children as “abysmal”, with more than 90 per cent eating only two types of food a day, at best, adding: “We estimate that more than 50,000 children are acutely malnourished and need life-saving treatment now.”
“While in Gaza, I met doctors, nurses and nutrition workers who implement the programmes we support… and I heard the struggles of mothers and fathers to feed their children. I have no doubt that the threat of famine and a severe, widespread nutrition crisis in Gaza is real,” he said.

Need for an immediate ceasefire
Dr. Victor Aguayo said there was only one way to prevent that threat. “We need a ceasefire, immediately, and with a ceasefire, sustained and widespread humanitarian access to the entire Gaza Strip. Only a ceasefire and an unfettered humanitarian response will enable families to access food, including specialized nutrition for young children, nutritional supplements for pregnant women, and health, water and sanitation services for the entire population,” he said.
In Sudan, more than 25 million people are affected by food insecurity – including nearly 3.7 million children who are acutely malnourished. These numbers continue to rise due to mass displacement, limited humanitarian access, and disruption to health and nutrition services, said Dr. Victor Aguayo. The UNICEF official called for an unfettered and large-scale humanitarian response to early prevention, detection and treatment of acute malnutrition among the most vulnerable children, especially those under 5, and their mothers, whose lives are at risk due to these multiple escalating crises.