World Ignores Sudan Hunger Crisis; 230,000 Children and Mothers Could Die in Coming Months

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Sudan is on track to become the world's worst hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. For over a year, fighting between the Sudanese military and the rival Rapid Support Forces has disrupted the country, displacing over 8 million people who experience extreme hunger in the areas with the most intense fighting. The increasing demand comes as the U.N.'s appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan is less than 5% funded. Funding is also drying up in Chad, where some 1.2 million Sudanese have taken refuge. "This is the largest sort of mass mortality crisis that we are facing in the world and the largest that we have probably faced for many decades," says Alex de Waal, the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine, who laments the "shocking" cuts to the World Food Programme that is essential to the global emergency response system. "If it doesn't work, we are going to find ourselves facing the kinds of crises of mass mortality that we have simply not seen for half a century or longer."

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