CAIRO — Millions of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan risk falling deeper into hunger as they seek refuge in countries already grappling with food insecurity, the United Nations warned.
The World Food Program, the U.N.'s food agency, said Monday that over four million Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries are at risk of suffering further food insecurities as crucial funding for life-saving food assistance is expected to dwindle in the coming months in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda and Chad.
About 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, by Sudan's civil war that began in April 2023, according to estimates from U.N. agencies.
Nearly half of the population remaining in Sudan is facing acute food insecurity, with some areas of the country suffering from malnutrition, which has killed 239 children in the past six months in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, the Sudan Doctors Network said.
The group said the children died as a result of severe shortages of food and medicine, and the bombing of nutrition warehouses in the Sudanese province between January and June.
Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, escalated to fighting in the capital of Khartoum and spread across the country.
But those fleeing the conflict continue to suffer from malnutrition even beyond Sudan's borders.
''Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,'' said Shaun Hughes, WFP's Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis. ''Food assistance is a lifeline for vulnerable refugee families with nowhere else to turn.''
