The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has issued a food insecurity and malnutrition alert in Sudan amid escalating conflicts. 

In a statement on Monday, the ICP warned of a growing risk of famine across parts of Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, where conflict, mass displacement, severe drought and inadequate humanitarian funding were driving a rapidly deteriorating situation.

According to the IPC, an El Niño-induced drought, affecting roughly half of the country, was compounding the impacts of conflict and displacement, reducing food availability, driving up prices and affecting livelihoods. 

“The IPC Alert highlights alarming levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in several localities, including new areas of concern,” the statement noted.

The IPC further warned of limited, often inaccessible healthcare in the country, noting clean water was becoming increasingly scarce, leaving a poorly nourished population highly vulnerable to disease and death.

The organisation recommended putting an end to hostilities, safeguarding civilians, and protecting food, water and health systems and securing safe and sustained humanitarian access in frontline areas, especially in North and West Kordofan.

It also stressed the need to scale up integrated, lifesaving humanitarian response as well as provision of flexible and predictable funding in the country.

Similarly, the World Health Organistion, which is an IPC member, said it was supporting the health and nutrition response across Sudan, including treating medical complications in children with severe acute malnutrition and responding to disease outbreaks.

“Hunger and malnutrition compound the effects of diseases on affected communities as malnourished people are more susceptible to developing severe forms of diseases such as cholera and measles,” the WHO noted.

The alert came amid civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), triggering the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.