The IPC report describes famine in five areas, including in Sudan's largest camp, Zamzam, in northern Darfur.
Famine is spreading in Sudan because of a war between the army and the army, the United Nations' World Hunger Monitor said.
The Hunger Monitoring Committee of the Joint Panel on Food Security (IPC) published a report on Tuesday detailing hunger in five areas, including Sudan's largest camp, Zamzam, in the North Darfur region.
Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two refugee camps in El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, and in areas inhabited by refugees in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan, the report said.
The five-member committee also found that the famine, which was first reported in August, will spread to five other areas – Um Kadadah, Melit, el-Fasher, Tawisha and al-Lait – by May. It also identified 17 other areas across Sudan that are at risk of famine.
According to the IPC report, 24.6 million Sudanese people – half of the population – are facing food insecurity.
“(The war) has led to mass displacement, economic collapse, the disruption of essential social services, massive social dislocation, and the lack of access to humanitarian aid,” the report said.
The IPC, an independent organization supported by Western countries, consists of more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups and governments that use their monitoring as a global mechanism for monitoring food and nutrition issues.
The report was published despite the Sudanese government's continued interference with the IPC's monitoring of food insecurity. On Monday, the government announced it was suspending its participation in international hunger monitoring projects, saying the IPC was producing “unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity”.
Sudan has been affected by a 20-month war that has been deadly more than 24,000 people and displaced more than 14 million people – about 30 percent of the population – from their homes, according to the UN. 3.2 million Sudanese have crossed into neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
The war began in April 2023 when long-standing conflicts between the military and the Rapid Support Forces The war broke out in the capital Khartoum, before spreading to other towns and the western region of Darfur.
The conflict has been marked by violence, including ethnic cleansing and rape, according to the UN and human rights groups. The International Criminal Court investigates war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In its report, the IPC added that in conflict-affected areas, violence can seriously disrupt agriculture, causing workers to abandon their crops. Farms have also suffered from theft and killing of livestock.
“Immigrant families, especially those living in villages and public housing, will not benefit as much from the harvest,” it said.
Dervla Cleary, director of emergencies and rehabilitation at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said the situation in Sudan was “very serious”.
“It's unacceptable in a country like today,” Cleary told the Associated Press. “We need the violence to stop so that people can have access to food, water, health, nutrition and agriculture.”
Sudan is the third country where famine has been reported in the last 15 years. The other two are South Sudan and Somalia.