THE nearly year-long conflict between Sudan’s military and paramilitary forces has put the African nation on course for the world’s worst hunger crisis, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

Edem Wosornu, director of humanitarian operations, told the UN security council that already one-third of Sudan’s population of 18 million face acute food insecurity.

Ms Wosornu said catastrophic hunger levels could be reached in some areas of the western Darfur region by the time “the lean season arrives in May.”

She said: “A recent assessment revealed that one child is dying every two hours in Zamzam camp in El Fasher, North Darfur. 

“Our humanitarian partners estimate that in the coming weeks and months, somewhere in the region of around 222,000 children could die from malnutrition.”

Ms Wosornu called the harrowing situation “the stuff of nightmares,” with appalling accounts of ethnic-based attacks, sexual violence including gang rapes, and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas.

With international attention focussed on Israel’s invasion of Gaza and the war in Ukraine, she said that “a humanitarian travesty is playing out in Sudan under a veil of international inattention and inaction.”

Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when fighting broke out in the capital, Khartoum, between its military led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

Fighting quickly spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas, but in Darfur it took on a different form, with brutal attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians. Thousands of people have been killed.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias against populations that identify as central or east African. 

Ms Wosornu said there has been no respite from fierce fighting in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan, home to 90 per cent of the people facing emergency levels of food insecurity.

But, Ms Wosornu said, the UN appeal for $2.7 billion (£1.5 billion) for Sudan has received just $131 million (£103m).

Carl Skau, the UN World Food Programme’s deputy executive director, told the council that as well as the crisis in Sudan, seven million people in neighbouring South Sudan and nearly three million in Chad also face starvation.

Mr Skau warned that “co-ordinated efforts and joined up diplomacy” are now critical.