Nearly 19.5 mln people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity

Nearly 19.5 million people in Sudan are facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity, a UN spokesperson said Friday, citing the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).



While 14 areas are at risk of famine across Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, conditions are expected to deteriorate further during the lean season between June and September, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told a daily briefing.



Meanwhile, humanitarian assistance remains critically inadequate compared with the scale of needs, he said.



Between February and May, humanitarian partners aimed to reach 4.8 million people per month, but only an estimated 3.13 million people received assistance in February, Haq said.