The people of Sudan are in "imminent danger of starvation", United Nations agencies said, after more than a year of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF).
"About 18 million people are already acutely hungry, including 3,6 million children who are acutely malnourished," said a joint statement by UN chiefs, including Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
"Time is running out for the millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of starvation, displaced from their land, living under bombardment and cut off from humanitarian aid," the statement added.
Fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 and quickly spread across the country, reigniting ethnic bloodshed in the western Darfur region and forcing millions to flee in the world's biggest displacement crisis.
"Without an immediate and major change of pace, we will face a nightmare scenario: famine will take over large parts of the country," said the statement, also signed by UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
The war broke out before the long-simmering tensions over the integration of the RSF with the army reached a peak. The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said last Sunday that there is a risk of genocide in parts of Darfur.
A UN-backed report said in March that urgent action was needed to "prevent the spread of death and total collapse of livelihoods and prevent a catastrophic famine crisis in Sudan".
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