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Opinion: Australia must act to prevent 2.5 million deaths from hunger in Sudan

Mat Tinkler, Jennifer Tierney & Susanne LegenaThe West Australian
A staggering 25.6 million people in Sudan are experiencing crisis levels of hunger, a number almost equivalent to the entire population of Australia.
Camera IconA staggering 25.6 million people in Sudan are experiencing crisis levels of hunger, a number almost equivalent to the entire population of Australia. Credit: AAP

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already aware there is a war raging in Sudan.

What you may not be aware of is simply how destructive and deadly the war has been and how it’s fast becoming one of the worst humanitarian crises in the past century.

This is partly because the war in Sudan, now in its 16th month, has not received anywhere near the attention it deserves from the international community.

But simply ignoring a crisis does not diminish the scale of human suffering.

A staggering 25.6 million people in Sudan are experiencing crisis levels of hunger, a number almost equivalent to the entire population of Australia, with the United Nations recently declaring a full-blown famine in parts of the country.

At least 18,000 people have been killed, but the true number is unknown, with US officials warning it could be as high as 150,000.

Given the desperate situation and horrifying warnings of worse to come, Australia can and must do more to support those in need.

Admittedly, Sudan is one of the furthest countries from Australia’s shores, yet we have a significant Sudanese diaspora community for whom this crisis is very close, and very real. They are enduring immense suffering themselves — not only grappling with the mental and emotional toll of witnessing their loved ones in a war zone, but also burdened with the financial strain of supporting family members in Sudan.

And it was not so long ago that Australia played an outsized role to protect millions of children from famine in a country near to Sudan.

It was 2011 and aid agencies were warning that millions of children were at risk of dying of starvation and disease in Somalia if the international community didn’t step up.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s then foreign minister, travelled to the drought-stricken nation and would go on to commit a total of $112 million to fight hunger in the region, making Australia the second-largest donor in the world relative to GDP.

It’s an effort Australia should be proud of, knowing our support helped save thousands of lives. However, the Federal Government later acknowledged that its response was too little too late, with more than a quarter of a million people going on to perish, and concluding that next time famine looms, Australia must act sooner.

Unfortunately, Australia appears to have forgotten this deadly lesson as those warning signs have come and gone.

As early as February this year, Médecins Sans Frontières reported that in Sudan’s Zamzam camp, a child was dying of hunger or disease every two hours. The United Nations declared famine in this camp last month.

In March, Save the Children warned that nearly 230,000 children, pregnant women and new mothers could die from hunger in the coming months.

Then, in May, food security experts estimated that hunger and related diseases could kill 2.5 million people in Sudan by the end of the year, which would make it the most lethal hunger crisis since the 1960s.

Inside Sudan and along the country’s borders, Plan International child protection and trauma experts continue to support children who have not only faced unimaginable violence, death and destruction, but are now also presenting severely malnourished. These are babies that are too weak to cry; entire families that have walked for days without food.

The Australian Government’s announcement in June that it would increase humanitarian support to Sudan and neighbouring countries hosting Sudanese refugees to $33.45 million was heartening, but this still does not go far enough.

At a minimum, Australia should increase our commitment to at least $70 million, which would still be less than half of what some of Australia’s closest allies and friends have each provided, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. The United States alone has provided about $2.4 billion to the Sudan crisis, more than 70 times Australia’s contribution.

With millions of lives hanging in the balance, it’s time for Australia to step up, provide its fair share, and show that we have learned the difficult lessons from our response to the 2011 famine in Somalia.

If Australia fails to act, it will be our national shame, and we won’t be able to say we didn’t know what the consequences of that inaction would be.

Mat Tinkler is the CEO of Save the Children Australia. Jennifer Tierney is the executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières Australia. Susanne Legena is the CEO of Plan International Australia.

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