Sudan may soon become the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain cautioned Sunday.
The escalating civil war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has killed at least 15,000 people and displaced over 8 million since April 2023. Already facing the worst displacement crisis in the world, Sudan is on the brink of the world’s largest hunger crisis, according to the World Food Programme.
In an interview with Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” on CBS, McCain stressed the importance of maintaining safe access and open crossings to transport humanitarian aid as the “forgotten crisis” in Sudan rages on.
“We cannot get food in, we can barely get food in, we certainly aren’t getting it in at scale, and you see the results of what can happen if people aren’t fed. We’re also coming into the lean season, which makes it very difficult many times for our trucks to even operate if they can get in,” McCain said. “We need safe and unfettered access.”
More countries are stepping up to support Sudan as the crisis could have “catastrophic effects” in destabilizing that region of Africa, McCain said. But even with the United States as the largest donor to the World Food Programme, President Joe Biden’s policy on Sudan is struggling amid pressure from Democratic and Republican lawmakers to do more to help end the war.
McCain also said southern Gaza is on the verge of famine as severe hunger continues to impact the northern area of the strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously denied that Palestinians are starving in Gaza and disputed that Israel is to blame for the lack of humanitarian aid entering the region. Israel has allowed more trucks to access northern Gaza to provide more food, McCain said, but “we need a ceasefire” to prevent famine in the south.
The World Food Programme’s operations are now on pause in Gaza out of concern for the safety of its workers after two warehouses “were rocketed yesterday,” she said. One man was injured, according to McCain, who said she did not know who fired the rockets.
“That’s why a ceasefire is necessary,” McCain said. “We can’t continue this in a way because what almost happened in the north with famine could happen in the south. And so that’s what we're trying to avoid right now.”
“It's very difficult to operate there.”
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