The battle to prevent lives being lost in Sudan to famine must include a comprehensive "package of assistance", not just food, the top UN aid official in the country told UN News on Monday.
The head of UN aid coordination office OCHA in the war-torn country Justin Brady said the famine conditions which already prevail in Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, are "very dire" and access has become increasingly difficult.
The UN-partnered IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) announced last week that famine conditions are ongoing in the Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp which hosts 500,000 IDPs outside besieged El Fasher.
In an interview with UN News's Khaled Mohamed, Mr. Brady stressed that an effective response to the famine that is now evident as rival militaries continue to wreak havoc across Sudan, cannot be made on a "shoestring budget."
"People think famine, and they think food, when in fact, what we need to respond, be it famine or displacement, is a package of assistance", he said.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene are a crucial part of keeping beleaguered civilians alive, caught between Government troops and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the past 15 months of brutal fighting: "They need health, protection, shelter, and non-food items."
More resources critical
He told us that the situation can be reversed, "though it will take more than just humanitarians trying their hardest. We need the resources, political leverage, and advocacy to make the parties come to the table and end this war."
Mr. Brady was speaking as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) once again called for an immediate end to the fighting.
FAO said a rapid scale up of life-saving food, nutrition and cash assistance must go hand in hand with emergency agricultural aid.
"This is critical in conflict-affected areas to address immediate needs and avert the risk of famine from increasing and affecting other locations across Sudan", the agency said.
Sudan is facing the worst levels of hunger ever recorded by the IPC in the country, as well as the world's largest internally displaced crisis, with a staggering 755, 000 people are currently facing catastrophic levels of acute hunger (IPC Phase 5).
Around 25.6 million people are experiencing high levels of acute hunger.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
UN News: The IPC Famine Review Committee reported this month that the ongoing conflict in Sudan has pushed communities in North Darfur State into famine, notably the Zamzam camp near the state capital Al Fasher. Have you had the opportunity to get on-the-ground information recently about the current situation in that area? And is that area inaccessible to humanitarian workers?
Justin Brady: The situation in Zamzam particularly is very difficult. As you say, just outside of the state capital, which has been under siege and attacked by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for some weeks, if not months now. and access in that general area has become very difficult.
There are some partners on the ground there, such as MSF, who are providing us direct information, "ground truthing" on the situation, which is very dire, obviously given the classification of famine, which is something that, since April, when we launched the famine prevention plan, we were we were trying to avoid.
If we don't have enough resources and we don't have enough access, it is going to be very difficult to stop famine conditions from taking hold.
And that's exactly what happened. we did see a major shift in the Government's, approach to access. They were much more open to providing visas and travel permissions. That started in about mid-May. A bit late, though, in the process - and then, unfortunately, RSF has actually increased its bureaucratic impediments.
The Famine Review Committee returned a classification of famine for that location [Zamzam]. They did not draw a conclusion or provide recommendations on the other two camps - Abu Shouk and Al Salam - because they said that the data wasn't sufficient. Think about it. Why wasn't the data sufficient enough? Getting the data out due to access constraints has been a problem.
If we can't get data out, how do we get the aid in? it's just not a manageable situation in that regard. Now, people will then ask, are you going to declare a famine? The United Nations is not going to declare a famine in Sudan. Sudan has an internationally recognized government. In 2011, the United Nations did declare a famine in Somalia at a time when the Federal Transitional Government was not internationally recognized.
however, the Government of Sudan has indicated, through a press conference it recently held, as well as direct meetings I've had with them, that they do not recognize the classification of famine. They do not believe the data supports that. So, we should not expect a famine declaration from the Government at this time.
