Office of the Spokesman
The text of the following statement was released by the European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, and the Governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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Sudan is experiencing an alarming deterioration in its food security. The risk of famine in the coming months, as warned by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, needs urgent action. There is no time to lose to save lives and prevent famine.
An estimated 19.5 million people (41% of the country’s population) are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, including 5 million facing emergency levels of food insecurity. Without immediate action to reverse the current trajectory, the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition could exceed the projected 825,000. The number of food insecure areas, initially assessed at 14, is expected to double.
Conflict is the key driver of Sudan’s hunger crisis, displacing millions of people, damaging critical infrastructure and disrupting healthcare provision, food production, supply chains and markets. The situation is being exacerbated by systematic obstruction of aid and the effects of El Niño, which has resulted in reduced rainfall and increased drought across over half of Sudan.
The parties to the conflict bear primary responsibility for alleviating the suffering of the Sudanese people. We urge the parties to lift all impediments on humanitarian assistance, allow and facilitate full, safe, rapid, and unimpeded humanitarian access, and protect humanitarian personnel. Left unchecked, these impediments will hamper the ability of the humanitarian response to address famine risk. In practice, we call on the parties to:
- Authorise humanitarian operations through all crossline and cross-border routes, including air access into Darfur which will allow for the rapid deployment of aid operations and timely aid worker medical evacuations;
- Sustain presence and protection of humanitarian personnel throughout Sudan, including reducing delays for visas and customs clearance, increasing the duration of visas and travel permits and removing additional permits, taxations and other bureaucratic requirements slowing aid delivery;
- Refrain from strikes on civilian infrastructure, including agriculture and food systems, which are critical to the delivery of essential services to the civilian population.
- Strengthen civil-military coordination to ensure the safety of humanitarians and humanitarian sites.
In the face of a potential famine, we call on all members of the international community to urgently scale up funding in response to increased needs and support efforts to ensure assistance reaches those most in need. We further encourage development and financial institutions to adapt their ongoing programmes to the food security situation and focus on the areas of greatest need. Together we must act without delay to avert famine by supporting the winter cropping season and strengthening locally led responses.
We stand with the people of Sudan and humanitarian organisations who are working tirelessly and under extremely challenging conditions to provide life-saving assistance.
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