Hommam Al Nassim 
An international organization concerned with food security, supported by the United Nations, warned yesterday, Friday, of a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan.
The interim classification confirmed that it had reviewed the latest available evidence and published the warning to express grave concern about the deteriorating situation and press for immediate action to prevent famine.
Without an immediate cessation of hostilities and the deployment of humanitarian assistance, residents of Khartoum, Gezira, Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan states will reach the worst levels of food insecurity during the next dry season in April-May 2024, the report said.
The Integrated Phase Classification estimates that nearly five million people are acutely malnourished, including 3.6 million children under the age of five and 1.2 million pregnant and lactating women.
The IPC was due to issue an update to its analysis in December, but this was not possible due to the war.
The Security Council this month called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, with the United States warning on Thursday it would press the council to take action to deliver cross-border aid from Chad.
The war in Sudan broke out on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The United Nations said nearly 25 million people, half of Sudan’s population, needed assistance, and some eight million had been displaced from their homes.
The discovery of new bodies of migrants off the coast of Libya raises the death toll to 12