United Nations agencies on Friday forecasted that millions of Sudanese would go hungry this year as economic turmoil and erratic rains drive up prices and reduce harvests.
It said the rising levels of hunger threaten to further destabilise a country that faces growing conflict and poverty.
It added that this followed a military takeover with a halt to foreign assistance and the war in Ukraine putting food supplies at further risk.
Sudan has been mired in economic crisis since before the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in an uprising in 2019.
A transitional government attracted billions of dollars in international support, but that was suspended after the coup, placing Sudan on the brink of economic collapse.
Currency devaluations and subsidy reforms have also driven up prices and inflation was running at more than 250 per cent.
In the capital Khartoum, the cost of ever-shrinking small loaves of bread has risen from two Sudanese pounds two years ago to about 50 pounds ($0.11).
Some 87 per cent of Sudan’s imported wheat came from Russia and Ukraine, according to FAO data, making it one of the Arab world’s most exposed countries to the war in Ukraine.
“If this measly piece of bread is 50 pounds, what kind of life can we have?” said Haj Ahmed, an elderly man at a vegetable stall in Alhalfaya, on the capital’s outskirts.
The World Bank estimates that in 2021 some 56 per cent of Sudan’s populations of around 44 million were surviving on less than 3.20 dollars, or about 2,000 pounds per day.
This was one of its global poverty lines, up from 43 per cent in 2009.
Earlier, the World Food Programme estimated that people experiencing levels of hunger that will force them to sell essential assets, or who will have nothing more to sell, will double by September to 18 million.
Aid agencies have long worked to help the rural poor and people displaced by war in Sudan. In 2019 the WFP extended its operations to urban centres for the first time.
Marianne Ward, WFP deputy country director said “this jump didn’t happen yesterday or a couple months ago, it’s been building.
“It’s not exclusively driven by conflict anymore, it’s also about structural issues such as inflation (and) availability of foreign currency.’’
Reuters
