For only the third time in the past 20 years, the United Nations has declared a full-scale famine. This declaration concerns a refugee camp called Zamzam, on the outskirts of the city of El Fasher in Sudan. Since April, the charity Médecins Sans Frontières estimated that one child in the camp dies every two hours from hunger or disease – and the situation has only worsened since then. But it’s not just Zamzam camp that is suffering from a horrific disaster. The camp was chosen only because it is one of the few places in war-torn Sudan for which the UN has reliable information. Indeed, famine is devouring much of the country. This famine will almost certainly be worse than the one that plagued Ethiopia in the 1980s. If more aid does not arrive soon, it could be the worst famine anywhere in the world since millions of people starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In May, the Klingender Institute, a Dutch think tank, released a report that estimated hunger and related diseases would kill more than two million people in Sudan by the end of the year. Timo Jasbeck, the report’s author, has since extended his projections to cover the next two years. In an ‘optimistic scenario’, where the fighting stops and this year’s harvest, expected in October, is slightly better than last year, Jasbeck predicts ‘excess deaths’ of around 6 million people by 2027. In the (more likely) scenario where the fighting continues until early next year, more than 10 million people could die. Although some experts have lower estimates, there is an emerging consensus that Sudan is facing mass starvation on a scale not seen in decades, absent decisive action. The cause of the famine is Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023, when disagreements arose between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The ensuing conflict is the largest and most destructive in the world today. Perhaps 150,000 people were killed in the fighting itself. At least 245 towns or villages were burned down. Much of the capital Khartoum was destroyed. More than 20 per cent of the country’s pre-war population of around 50 million people were forced to flee their homes. Some have taken refuge in neighboring countries such as Egypt, but the vast majority of the displaced – some 8 million – remain inside Sudan, many in camps such as Zamzam. Doctors Without Borders estimates that 80 per cent of health facilities in war-torn areas have been destroyed by bullets and bombs to the point of being inoperable.
