'Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding' in Sudan: Millions resort to 'most extreme' survival mechanisms
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00:00 We're going to talk more about the humanitarian situation in Sudan with Leni Kinsley, spokesperson
00:05 for the UN's World Food Programme in Sudan.
00:08 Leni joining me now from Nairobi.
00:10 Leni, first of all, what are you hearing about the current situation on the ground from your
00:14 teams who are there?
00:17 The situation on the ground is extremely dire.
00:20 We are seeing record levels of hunger in Sudan during a time when it's the harvest season,
00:26 when food should typically be more available.
00:30 And what is most concerning is in the coming months that the lean season is coming, people
00:36 will run out of their food stocks.
00:38 And then we are looking at a looming hunger catastrophe.
00:42 More and more people are fleeing by the day.
00:45 It's close to 80,000 people have fled in the last week alone.
00:50 These numbers are not letting up.
00:52 So tens of thousands of people are fleeing and fleeing to places like Chad and South
00:58 Sudan where resources are already very scarce.
01:02 And that's why we are warning that this could become regionally the worst hunger crisis
01:07 in the world if the fighting doesn't stop.
01:09 Leni, what's the situation like more specifically in Darfur?
01:16 Specifically in Darfur, there are 1.7 million people who are in emergency levels of hunger.
01:23 We have started receiving reports of children dying of starvation in some of the IDP camps.
01:31 These are anecdotal reports and we urgently need access to these areas so that we can
01:36 assist people, but also so that we can do assessments and better understand the situation
01:41 and how much support is needed.
01:43 But for that, we need unfettered humanitarian access, both from across the border in Chad,
01:50 but also from within Sudan, from Eastern Sudan into Western Sudan through different conflict
01:54 lines and areas of control so that we can best support the people of Darfur who urgently
02:00 need our assistance right now.
02:02 Indeed.
02:03 And as you were saying, many of these areas are largely inaccessible to WFP.
02:08 What are you hearing about how people are actually concretely dealing with the situation
02:13 on the ground?
02:14 Where are these families going?
02:15 What are they doing?
02:18 So specifically, and there are many examples of this, but one story that I heard from a
02:24 young woman in Port Sudan recently is that she and her mother fled Khartoum, selling
02:30 everything that they owned just to be able to afford that journey to safety, and then
02:34 arriving in Port Sudan, staying in university dorms with dozens of others, and then having
02:43 very little left over to be able to afford their basic needs.
02:49 And that is the story of millions of people in Sudan now, basically resorting to the most
02:56 extreme coping mechanisms just to be able to survive.
03:00 And that is what is so concerning about this humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding
03:06 the longer this war goes on.
03:08 What about aid?
03:09 There is aid out there, but it is having trouble getting in.
03:13 What kind of things have been blocking the aid that groups like yours are trying to get
03:16 to these people?
03:18 So the biggest is, first of all, that the fighting is still ongoing.
03:24 In greater Khartoum, there is active fighting.
03:27 It is extremely difficult to transport dozens of trucks of food into areas where there's
03:33 airstrikes, shellings.
03:35 But then also, it is guarantees from both sides to the conflict, the RSF and the Sudanese
03:42 armed forces, who are making it challenging to deliver across lines of conflict, which
03:47 is what would be required to reach all the areas where people need support.
03:53 The people who need the most support at this time are those who are trapped in conflict
03:57 hot spots, like Khartoum, as I mentioned before, parts of the Darfur, also parts of Kordofan,
04:04 which is in south central Sudan.
04:06 And what is challenging in access is that we are able to get food into the country from
04:09 eastern Sudan into port Sudan via the Red Sea, but then transporting that food across
04:14 the country into western Sudan, where the rapid support forces are more in control.
04:20 That is the challenge.
04:21 And that is why we need cross-border and cross-line access and freedom of movement and an unhindered
04:27 access in accordance to international humanitarian law.
04:30 Lenny, 20 years ago, Darfur had the biggest hunger crisis in the world, and then the world
04:36 rallied to respond.
04:38 Where is the international community today?
04:40 What more should they be doing?
04:44 So the international community needs to step up for the Sudanese people now, now more than
04:49 ever.
04:51 This has largely been a ignored crisis, and the time to pay attention was when this started,
04:59 and yesterday.
05:00 But if that time wasn't then, it needs to be now, because we are seeing this unfold
05:05 into a catastrophe that has wide-reaching regional implications on stability, not just
05:13 directly in the region, but also potential other implications around the world.
05:19 And so the international community needs to step up with concerted efforts, and those
05:24 who have influence over both parties to the conflict, to exert pressure, one, to end the
05:30 conflict, but also to enable humanitarian assistance to get to those who so desperately
05:37 need it right now.
05:39 Lenny, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.
05:42 Lenny Kinsley, the spokesperson for the UN's World Food Program in Sudan.
05:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]