Sudan - August 2024

On 1 August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global standard for food security, announced that its Famine Review Committee (FRC) had confirmed an ongoing famine in Zamzam camp, an internally displaced persons camp in Darfur. According to the FRC, famine conditions in Zamzam are highly likely to persist beyond October and that other areas of Sudan remain at risk of famine due to the ongoing conflict and limited humanitarian access. Zamzam is thought to be sheltering half a million people and is located on the outskirts of the North Darfurian city of El Fasher, that has for months been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces. For a famine to be declared by the IPC, it has to determine that a sufficiently high proportion of a population in a specific area is suffering from extreme food scarcity. It is only the third time that it has made such a determination since its establishment in 2004.     

Sources:  Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (1), Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (2), Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (3), Famine Early Warning Systems Network