The Sudanese government has suspended its participation in the global hunger-monitoring system on the eve of a report that is expected to show famine spreading across the country.
In a letter dated Monday, the Sudanese minister of agriculture said the government is halting its participation in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system.
The letter accused the IPC of “issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity.”
Photo: Bloomberg
The IPC was expected to publish a report yesterday finding that famine has spread to five areas in Sudan and could expand to 10 by May, a briefing document showed.
“This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict and poor humanitarian access,” the document said.
A spokesperson for the Rome-based IPC declined to comment.
Sudan’s withdrawal from the IPC system could undermine humanitarian efforts to help millions of Sudanese facing extreme hunger, said the leader of a non-governmental organization (NGO) operating there, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Withdrawal from the IPC system won’t change the reality of hunger on the ground, but it does deprive the international community of its compass to navigate Sudan’s hunger crisis,” the NGO source said.
“Without independent analysis, we’re flying blind into this storm of food insecurity,” the source added.
A diplomat with Sudan’s mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the move to cut off the IPC.
The IPC is funded by Western nations and overseen by 19 large humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions, but it has struggled to function in Sudan since civil war erupted there in April last year.
The fighting between the army-backed government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary has disrupted data collection in areas held by both sides.
The forthcoming IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season, it says.
The growing season was successful, Monday’s letter says.
It also notes “serious concerns” about the IPC’s ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF.
Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, called Sudan’s move to stop cooperating with the IPC “both pathetic and tragic.”
“It’s part of a long history of the government of Sudan denying famine going back more than 40 years,” said De Waal, a leading specialist on famine.
“Whenever there’s a famine in Sudan, they consider it an affront to their sovereignty, and they’re more concerned about their pride and their control than they are over the lives of their citizens,” he added.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS