STORY: :: Zamzam camp, North Darfur, Sudan
:: August 1, 2024
Sudan's government on Sunday (August 4) denied the existence of famine in North Darfur's Zamzam camp for internally displaced people.
That contradicts the findings of a global food monitor.
The Famine Review Committee said in a report on Thursday (August 1) that famine, confirmed when acute malnutrition and mortality criteria are met, is ongoing in the camp and likely to persist until at least October.
The finding by the committee of food security experts, linked to the globally-recognized standard known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, is just the third time a famine classification has been made since the system was set up 20 years ago.
:: Khartoum, Sudan
:: File
And it comes after more than 15 months of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
That conflict has created the world's biggest internal displacement crisis and left half the population - around 25 million people - in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
:: MSF
:: Zamzam camp, North Darfur, Sudan
:: File
Earlier this year aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres said that one child was dying every two hours in the Zamzam camp.
MSF said on Sunday (August 4) that it only had enough therapeutic food to treat malnourished children there for another two weeks.
But, also on Sunday, Sudan's Federal Humanitarian Aid Commission said that talk of famine was inaccurate.
The government body said conditions were "not consistent" with those that must be met to declare famine.
:: August 1, 2024
Experts and U.N. officials say a famine classification could trigger a U.N. Security Council resolution empowering agencies to deliver aid across borders to those most in need.
However, Sudanese officials have said it could be a pretext for international intervention in the country.
The Sudanese government blamed the Rapid Support Forces for imposing what it said was a blockade on North Darfur's capital al-Fashir that has led to shortages of food and aid.
The RSF on Friday (August 2) declared "full solidarity" with victims of the famine and repeated an offer to work with the United Nations to facilitate the delivery of aid.
