Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), warned Sunday that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is worsening.
In an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” McCain stressed the importance of “safe and unfettered access” to organizations delivering food to the war-torn country.
“Sudan has the potential to become the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” McCain said. “We can’t get food. We can’t get very much food. We can’t get it on a large scale. If we can’t feed people, we know what the consequences are.”
McCain said conditions were likely to get even tougher in the coming months. “And we’re approaching the lean season for agricultural products, which means that even if trucks are able to get in, they often have great difficulty getting them to operate.”
“We need more border crossings. We need safe and unfettered access,” she said, comparing the obstacles in Sudan to those the WFP faces in delivering food to people in the Gaza Strip.
“At the end of the day, if we don’t get there, people will starve,” she added.
McCain highlighted the possible consequences if the world ignores the unfolding crisis in Sudan.
“Sudan is a forgotten crisis, and its impacts are a destabilizing factor in the region that could have devastating effects in the future,” she said. “So we really need to open our border crossings, ensure safe access, and make sure the different parties understand that we are humanitarians and that we need access.”
WFP is I called As famine rages in the region, the Sudanese government has called on “parties to the conflict to allow unrestricted access to at-risk communities.” Around 18 million people in Sudan face “severe hunger,” including five million who are experiencing “emergency levels of hunger.”
The WFP said around 90 percent of the “emergency” displacement was in areas “where access is extremely restricted due to intense fighting and restrictions.”
The WFP on Thursday announced an expansion of emergency food and nutrition assistance in Sudan.
