Khartoum — Because of the continuing economic crisis in Sudan and Covid-19 containment measures, staple food prices continued to increase more rapidly than normal last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in its latest Situation Report.

According to FEWS NET, more people, including displaced people in Darfur and South Kordofan, and poor households in urban and rural areas most affected by Covid-19 control measures, are expected to face crisis levels of food security -when there is a critical lack of access to food, as well as high malnutrition and a depletion of livelihood assets that, if continued, will slide the people into worse food insecurity or chronic poverty- or worse through September.

Emergency levels of food security -when there is a severe lack of access to food, as well as very high malnutrition and mortality rates, and irreversible livelihood asset stripping- outcomes are expected among displaced people in conflict-affected areas in Jebel Marra in Darfur, in areas controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North in South Kordofan, as well as in parts of Red Sea and Kassala states during the peak of the lean season from June to September.

Between February and March, the prices of sorghum and millet increased atypically by 10 to 20 per cent in most Sudanese markets, reaching levels of 250-350 per cent above the five-year average.

Sorghum is the staple food for the majority of households in central and eastern Sudan, sorghum and millet in Darfur and parts of Kordofan.