Anarchy in Sudan has spawned the world’s worst famine in 40 years, millions facing starvation, disease, death

Sven Torfin photo

The Economist
August 29, 2024

It is official: for only the third time in the past 20 years, the un has declared a full-blown famine. The declaration concerns a refugee camp called Zamzam, on the outskirts of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan. As long ago as April, Médecins Sans Frontières, a charity, estimated that every two hours a child in the camp was dying from starvation or disease—and since then the situation has got worse.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “An intensifying calamity”