Khartoum - New York: Europe and the Arabs
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that there are reports of people dying of hunger in some areas in Sudan, including Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum. According to the UN daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received this morning, Thursday, which added that in the daily press conference at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Dujarric reminded that according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, there is reasonable evidence of famine conditions in at least five areas in Sudan: Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps in North Darfur and two locations in the Western Nuba Mountains, affecting both residents and internally displaced persons.
He added that currently about 638,000 people have been confirmed to be suffering from catastrophic hunger conditions, which are classified as Phase 5 of the Integrated Classification.
Dujarric said: "All of this is, to say the least, a horrific and very sad situation," adding that 4.7 million children under the age of five, pregnant and lactating women and girls are suffering from severe malnutrition in Sudan.
He warned that people in Zamzam camp, which is regularly bombed, are resorting to extreme measures to survive due to the scarcity of food, "families are eating peanut shells mixed with oil that is normally used to feed animals."
The UN spokesman called on all parties to silence the guns and put the interests of their people first and foremost.
He stressed that there is an urgent need to expand access and open new corridors, both across borders and across the conflict front lines, "to deliver assistance and save people from starvation." He welcomed the decision of the Sudanese authorities to keep the Adre border crossing with Chad open.