Agencies warn of food emergency

Severe drought across many parts of Sudan continued to affect several million people, many of whom are at acute risk of severe food insecurity over the coming months, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported on Thursday. The WFP has warned that as many as three million people face disaster (600,000 as a result of drought and 2.4 million because of the civil war) unless food assistance reaches them. Low and sporadic rainfall had severely affected agricultural production and depleted water resources; in addition, stagnation in the livestock trade had reduced access to this traditional source of extra income, further eroding the coping capacities of the affected communities, according to the IFRC. Low immunisation coverage and the usual health risks related to a scarcity of safe drinking water threatened to increase the incidence of death and illness through preventable diseases, the IFRC stated. Access to safe water, emergency food and medical care had been identified as the most critical interventions required, it added. Meanwhile, a localised nutritional assessment by the international NGO Medair in Northern Darfur State indicated that an average of 11.4 percent of children were moderately or severely malnourished. This was below the 20 percent threshold that would have indicated a really serious situation, but it was still worrying given that there were still six months before the next harvest can be expected, the agency reported. A lack of food and water had already caused many people to migrate to the state capital, Al-Fashir, where a nutritional survey indicating that 26 percent of migrant children were malnourished was “of great concern,” Medair added.