The Sudanese government has suspended its participation in a global hunger monitoring system ahead of a report expected to show widespread famine across the country, a move likely to undermine efforts to address one of the world’s biggest hunger crises.
In a letter dated December 23, the Sudanese government’s minister of agriculture said it had suspended its participation in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System. The letter accused the IFSC of “issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity.”
On Tuesday, the IFSC published a report stating that famine has spread to five areas in Sudan and could spread to 10 areas by May, according to a document seen by Reuters.
“This represents an unprecedented exacerbation and spread of the food and nutrition crisis, as a result of the devastating conflict and poor humanitarian access,” the document reads. A spokesman for the Rome-based Interim Categorization declined to comment.
The head of a nongovernmental organization working in Sudan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the withdrawal from the tiered classification system could undermine humanitarian efforts to help millions of Sudanese sufferings from extreme hunger.
“Withdrawing from the ISPS will not change the reality of hunger on the ground. “But it deprives the international community of its compass in dealing with the hunger crisis in Sudan. “Without independent analysis, we are moving blindly into this storm of food insecurity.
A diplomat at Sudan’s mission to the United Nations in New York has not yet responded to a request for comment on the move to suspend participation in the rankings. The IPC is an independent body funded by Western countries and overseen by 19 major humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions.
It is a key component of the large-scale global hunger monitoring and response system, designed to sound the alarm about the development of food crises so that organizations can take action and prevent famine and widespread hunger.
Staging analysts typically collaborate with national governments to analyze data on food insecurity and report on conditions within a country’s borders. In Sudan, the government chaired the classification’s analysis group.
A recent Reuters investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the classification’s work in assessing the humanitarian situation earlier in the year, delaying famine monitoring in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people by several months and forcing some to eat leaves to survive.
A letter sent on Monday to the IPC and its Famine Assessment Committee (FAC), which validates famine findings, was received by diplomats.
The letter says the FAC’s forthcoming report lacks updated data on malnutrition rates and assessments of crop production during the recent summer rainy season. The letter says the crop season was good. The letter also noted “serious concerns” about the FAC’s ability to collect data from RSF-controlled territory.
“This is part of a long history of famine denial by the government of Sudan going back more than 40 years,” said de Waal, a senior famine specialist. Whenever there is a famine in Sudan, they consider it an affront to their sovereignty, and they are more concerned about their pride and control than they are about the lives of their citizens.
