WASHINGTON (AP) — The newly confirmed famine at one of the sprawling camps for war-displaced people in Sudan’s Darfur region is growing uncontrolled as the country’s combatants block aid, and it threatens to grow bigger and deadlier than the world’s last major famine 13 years ago, U.S. officials warned on Friday.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.N. World Food Program and other independent and government humanitarian agencies were intensifying calls for a cease-fire and aid access across Sudan. That’s after international experts in the Famine Review Committee formally confirmed Thursday that the starvation in at least one of three giant makeshift camps, holding up to 600,000 people displaced by Sudan’s more than yearlong war, had grown into a full famine.

Two U.S. officials briefed reporters on their analysis of the crisis on Friday following the famine finding, which is only the third in the 20-year history of the Famine Review Committee. The U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as the ground rules for their general briefing.

The last major famine, in Somalia, was estimated to have killed a quarter of a million people in 2011, half of them children under 5 years old.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      browses list

      Anglophone Crisis

      I’ve never even heard of this, but the French have absolutely got to be involved in this.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglophone_Crisis

      The Anglophone Crisis (French: Crise anglophone), also known as the Ambazonia War[11] or the Cameroonian Civil War,[12] is an ongoing armed conflict in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, between the Cameroonian government and separatist rebel groups, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem.

      “Anglophone problem”? Oh, this is definitely the French.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglophone_problem

      The issue arises from Anglophone opposition to certain policies and actions of the mainly Francophone (French-speaking) Government of Cameroon, particularly around the bilingual federation agreed to in 1961 and later rescinded in 1972, which has resulted in marginalization and discrimination.

      The term Anglophone itself can also be controversial, as many former French-speaking Cameroonians who are either multilingual or speak only English consider themselves Anglophones, despite the fact that some Northwesterners and Southwesterners do not believe there is an Anglophone problem.

      Sure enough.

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    So how can we solve this, realistically? This conflict hasn’t gotten much attention because it’s not closely tied to Western geopolitical interests, in contrast to Ukraine and Gaza. But the upside is there’s not likely to be much organized opposition to aid as there is with Gaza. So how those few of us who are aware of it act to make the situation better?