The former UN special envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, is warning of a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation created by the country's civil war.
"It's getting worse because famine is looming," the political scientist told the German broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday. He said that 18 million people, almost half the population of the country in north-east Africa, are threatened by acute hunger.
"We have four or five children dying of hunger every day. And that will increase over the coming weeks and months." Sudan's farmers would normally be harvesting their crops now, but this year no seeds could be sown due to the war.
The army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting for power in Sudan since April 2023. Both sides are ignoring a resolution from the UN Security Council which called for an end to the fighting.
The RSF is allowing its soldiers to carry out looting, murder and rape in conquered towns, Perthes continued. "And the army primarily has an air force, which bombs without any consideration for the civilian population."
Perthes called for a local ceasefire in the embattled city of Al-Fashir, the capital of the state of North Darfur in western Sudan, to be enforced. "That means pressure - especially on the militia through their regional allies. And we must use pressure from regional allies to persuade the army to allow aid deliveries across the border from Chad to Darfur."