Starvation used as weapon in war-torn country facing humanitarian catastrophe

Ministers have announced a doubling of aid to Sudan in response to deepening concern that the country is heading towards a famine worse than the one witnessed in Ethiopia 40 years ago.

Assistance worth £113m has been agreed for the war-torn state and neighbouring countries amid fears that Sudan’s death toll through starvation could ultimately exceed the Ethiopian famine that, according to UN estimates, caused a million deaths between 1983 and 1985. A ruinous civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen starvation repeatedly used as a weapon, with aid deliveries blocked by both sides.