AFP, United Nations

The famine in a displaced persons camp in war-torn Sudan is a “shameful stain” on the conscience of the international community, which failed to prevent it despite multiple warnings, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Last week an international committee responsible for assessing food insecurity declared a famine in the Zamzam camp, near the besieged town of El-Fasher, in Darfur.

It was the first time the committee had confirmed a famine in more than seven years, and only the third time since its monitoring system was launched two decades ago, said Stephen Omollo, assistant executive director of the World Food Programme, speaking at the UN Security Council.

“We have been clear that famine is a real and dangerous possibility... But our warnings have not been heard,” he said.

The crisis has not received the political and diplomatic attention it desperately needs, he said, hoping that the declaration of a famine would serve as a “wake-up call.”

“When famine happens, it means we are too late. It means we did not do enough. It means that we, the international community, have failed,” agreed Edem Wosornu of the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA).

Since April last year, a war has pitted the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.