Save The Children warns of widespread famine in Sudan. Almost half the population is affected. The ongoing Ukraine war has disrupted grain shipments from Russia and Ukraine, which account for over 87% of Sudan’s wheat supplies.
Save The Children has today issued a serious warning regarding the food situation in Sudan. Almost half of the population will be affected this year. More than 80 percent of Sudan’s wheat imports are at risk as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
The ongoing crisis has disrupted grain shipments from Russia and Ukraine, which account for over 80% and 7% of Sudan’s wheat supplies, respectively. Concerns about the disruption of supply lines have already driven up the global price of wheat by more than 50% and Save the Children warns that this could have a devastating knock-on effect on some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Bread is a staple food in Sudan, eaten mostly in populated urban areas. The price for an average food basket in Sudan has already gone up by 700% over the past two years, with the price of one small bread jumping from 5 SDG (around 1 cent USD) to nearly 50SDG (10 cents) within the last year alone.
“It doesn’t look good at all,” the WFP’s deputy country director in Sudan, Marianne Ward, said in an interview. “People are just not going to be able to afford their basic food basket.”
Sudan is already in the grips of a protracted economic crisis, which has seen inflation in the country rising to one of the highest levels in the world. Humanitarian partners estimated last year that about 14.3 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022.
Yet, taking into account the recent devaluation of the Sudanese Pound, and significant decrease in domestic production, the UN’s World Food Programme now projects that 20 million people; representing almost half of the Sudanese population could face hunger by the end of this year.
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Image: Chansey
