Humanitarian Crisis Deepens: Famine Confirmed in Sudan's Darfur Region Amidst Ongoing Conflict

An escalating famine in Sudan's Darfur region is threatening to become more deadly than the last major famine 13 years ago. US officials warn that combatants are blocking aid, intensifying the crisis. Calls for a cease-fire grow, as the international community seeks solutions to the man-made catastrophe.

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. US officials warned on Friday that it threatens to grow bigger and deadlier than the world's last major famine 13 years ago.

The US Agency for International Development, the UN World Food Program, and other humanitarian agencies intensified calls for a cease-fire and aid access across Sudan. This followed Thursday's formal confirmation by the Famine Review Committee that starvation in at least one of three giant makeshift camps, housing up to 600,000 people displaced by Sudan's war, had escalated into a full famine.

Two US officials briefed reporters on their analysis of the crisis on Friday, noting that this is only the third famine declared in the 20-year history of the Famine Review Committee. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, highlighted that the last major famine in Somalia in 2011 killed a quarter of a million people, half of them children under 5 years old.

(With inputs from agencies.)