FAMINE HAS BEGUN ITS DEADLY RAMPAGE IN SUDAN
“…an estimated excess mortality of about 2.5 million people (about 15% of the population in Darfur and Kordofan, which are likely worst affected) [can be expected] by the end of September 2024…” Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands, May 2024)
“Martin Griffiths, the outgoing Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, spoke on June 4 of “the likelihood that five million people across the country [Sudan] could face famine. I don’t think we’ve ever had that kind of number at risk of famine.”
June 5, 2024: A Special Appeal on Behalf of Team Zamzam and the People of Zamzam IDP camp, North Darfur
This is the first time in the four years of our project in Zamzam IDP camp (North Darfur, just to the southwest of El Fasher) that we have undertaken such a special appeal. But the catastrophe that has befallen more than 2 million people in the immediate region makes a strong moral claim on us.
For the larger crisis in Sudan was long foreseeable, and the famine that has now begun was all too predictable. The warnings extend back to 2022:
Inevitably, news attention “follows the bodies,” and El Fasher and its environs are now the subject of some—if belated—international news coverage. But in failing to anticipate what is occurring now, in failing to see that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their Arab militia allies were strangling the resources for life, and in failing to punish those who support the RSF—preeminently the ruthless United Arab Emirates—the international community has created a situation in which the extraordinarily grim assessment from the Clingendael Institute may in fact be optimistic.
The sentence cited above begins with an important qualification, so I offer it in its entirety:
“A scenario in which the hungriest people are given small amounts of extra food by others leads to an estimated excess mortality of about 2.5 million people (about 15% of the population in Darfur and Kordofan, which are likely worst affected) by the end of September 2024. A tipping point at which large-scale hunger transitions into large-scale-death has likely already been reached in parts of the country in May.
Key observations are:
• About 90% of excess mortality will be concentrated among about 10% of the population [primarily children].
• Mortality is strongly linked not only to the severity of hunger, but also to its duration. One cannot survive at emergency levels of food consumption for a long time. This is cause for serious concern for the 2025 lean season.
• Even a modest redistribution of food to the hungriest people can substantially reduce excess mortality. Sharing of food is a common practice in Sudan, but as scarcity deepens this could become difficult to sustain. It therefore needs to be complemented by support to agricultural production and a rapid, large-scale increase of food flows into Sudan.”
“Even a modest redistribution of food to the hungriest people can substantially reduce excess mortality.” I find this to be a remarkable finding, powerfully supported by the detailed research Clingendael provides. And it is to assist in the “redistribution of food to the hungriest” that I am appealing to the wonderfully generous donors to this project: please contribute some additional financial assistance, on whatever scale. Project Zamzam already prioritizes the most needy in the camp with its monthly food distributions—and the Team members report that morale remains strong among the camp population, and that sharing is indeed common.
But as the RSF siege of El Fasher continues, food becomes ever more difficult to find, even for the twenty extraordinarily resourceful counselors of Team Zamzam. And what food is available has become hideously expensive in the absence of humanitarian access. The first signs that such access may be coming are evident, but given the size of the population in need, it will require a great many overland convoys—from Chad or Port Sudan—to begin to alleviate the terrible suffering endured now by all in the camp.
[Rather than include here photographs revealing the plight of Darfuris in Zamzam and other nearby IDP camps, I have collected them on a dedicated page. I find them terribly difficult to look at and so have given them their own space.]
And what of the interim? As the Clingendael report rightly notes: “as scarcity deepens, sharing could become difficult to sustain.” The terrifying acceleration of “excess mortality” revealed in this graph—almost all of it from starvation or the effects of severe malnutrition—makes it difficult to expect adequate sharing of what food is available:
(“Excess morality” represents the number of deaths beyond those that might be expected under normal circumstances.)
Very recently, Martin Griffiths, the outgoing Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, spoke on June 4 of “the likelihood that five million people across the country [Sudan] could face famine. I don’t think we’ve ever had that kind of number at risk of famine.”
There are many tremendous opportunities for humanitarian giving—and responding to acute malnutrition—in this ravaged world. But in the case of Darfur, if we do not share what we can now, it is impossible to imagine the challenges that will face large groups such as the population of Zamzam camp later this year.
I ask for your generosity, assuring you that every dollar donated in response to this plea will go to alleviate hunger in Zamzam. And please recall that there is absolutely no overhead for this project: 100% of all contributions go to assist the displaced people of Zamzam.
[A recent project overview may be found here; an archive of monthly reports may be found here.]
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NB: It is now possible to make a tax-deductible contribution to our project, using a portal on the website of a 501/c/3 organization operating in Sudan. Operation Broken Silence, working primarily on health and education issues in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, has created a special site for tax-deductible contributions to our project, and we hope this makes contributing to the health and well-being of the people of Zamzam easier for donors.
Those wishing to assist in funding the work of Team Zamzam may also send a check directly to Eric (Eric Reeves, 31 Franklin St., Northampton, MA 01060).
OR
Purchase one of his woodturnings: https://www.ericreeves-woodturner.com/collections/all
