amna: Today the united nations
security council discussed of
the 11 month old brutal conflict
in Sudan, the third largest
country in Africa.
It's killed 14,000 people and
displaced 8 million so far.
The world food program now says
what began as a power struggle
could become the world's largest
hunger crisis.
In a moment, Nick schifrin
speaks with the executive
director director of the world
food program, but first, we hear
from the Sudanese who are
victims of war crimes,
catastrophe, and hunger.
A caution -- some of the images
in this story are disturbing.
Nick: With every step they take
they moved further from home.
Sudan refugees crowd a united
nations boat.
Too young to walk, old enough to
bear the burden of war.
Everyday hundreds cross into
South Sudan.
Children without enough food
precariously close to
starvation.
This 27-year-old takes what she
can, U.N. Packets of energy for
her husband and children who
fled the Sudanese capital.
>> We came by bus and it took us
two days to reach here.
What we need is food.
The immediate support we need is
to eat to be able to survive.
Nick: What they've survived is
civil war that turned
residential blocks into
battlegrounds.
It's a power struggle between
the Sudanese armed forces, or
saf, which the U.S. Has accused
of war crimes and has bombed
residential villages, and on the
other, the rsf, accused by the
U.S. Of crimes against humanity.
They kill young men they believe
to be supporters of Sudan's
army.
>> You see your loved ones dying
in front of your eyes.
Then people come to rape you.
I don't understand what is going
on, what is the reason for this?
Nick: This woman is a Sudanese
civil rights activist we met in
Washington.
She says the brutality of war on
both sides has created a
dystopian land of militia
warfare and gender-based
violence.
>> When it happens for this
area, the next area people start
feeling it already because they
know next it will be them.
Many cases of killings while
running away.
Many women raped on the way.
Horrible stories.
The women are telling us they
are completely traumatized.
Nick: When the rss caught
Sudan's second largest city last
August, they burned down the
city and for structure including
the national bank.
Hundreds of thousands fled their
homes, including this Dr. From
the international humanitarian
group care.
>> I was so scared, uncertain
what would happen to my family
and my kids.
The airstrikes, the shelling.
Nick: It was the second time he
been forced to take his six
children and find a new home.
>> I saw thousands of people
scared for their lives, using
whatever is available to move
them out.
Women were scared they would be
attacked and looted.
Thousands of people in panic.
Nick: The war has stolen the
smile from his six-year-old
daughter.
>> What I saw in her drawings,
men with machine guns.
This was shocking to me.
I think it will be hard for my
daughter and other kids to
forget what happened.
Nick: The war has crushed
already fragile structure and
pushed the area into hunger and
catastrophe.
25 million is hungry without
work.
>> You have a huge economic
crisis, incredibly difficult to
make a leaving at -- a living at
the moment in Sudan.
Public services are down.
Nick: This is the head of
doctors without borders in
Sudan.
>> Food used to be produced, and
next problem we face is crops
doing extremely bad the last
year.
All the specialist warned that
famine is looming for 2024 in
Sudan.
Nick: Joining me is Cindy
McCain, executive director of
the world food bank.
Let's talk about South Sudan,
where you visited, in a minute.
I want to ask the overall
question first, what is the
state of the humanitarian
catastrophe the war in Sudan has
created?
Cindy: The place I am at today
and the surrounding refugee
camps have the possibility of
becoming the world's largest
hunger crisis soon.
People who were there and people
returning, suffering
unbelievable difficulties.
Most of all they've had no food.
As you know, we had to cut
rations.
We are this close to famine.
Children are dying of
malnutrition every day.
Nick: You had to cut rations
because you haven't received
from the international community
the funds you've been asking
for.
The location you visited today
is where 85% of those fleeing
Sudan across the border.
What are the stories you hear
from these people?
Cindy: I sat next to a
grandmother who had her grandson
on her lap and she lost her
entire family.
The story she told and the angst
-- she is in a terrible
situation, as were all of the
other women in the room I was
talking to.
I'm here today to make sure we
remind the world this crisis is
happening, it is real and we
need help.
We cannot forget about Sudan.
Nick: One in five children at
the transit center you visited
today are malnourished.
Are they getting what they need?
Cindy: When they get to the
transit center, yes, we can help
the seriously malnourished and
the infants in pregnant mothers,
it is not enough.
We can't do it long term.
With infants we try to take care
of them longer.
I can't do it unless the world
community pays attention to what
is going on in the region.
Nick: The state department
called out both sides of the
conflict for the destruction of
humanitarian assistance the
state department says the
Sudanese armed forces have been
prohibiting cross-border
assistance and the rapid support
forces are looting homes,
markets and humanitarian
warehouses.
How big of a challenge does that
make your job?
Cindy: It is huge.
On the rare occasion we can get
a full convoy across, sometimes
things are looted, sometimes
not, sometimes people are
injured and sometimes they are
not.
We need keys, access and
funding, period.
That's what we need.
We need it soon.
Nick: What would it take for you
to be able to do the work you
need to do?
Cindy: To give you some idea, we
are $300 million short this
year.
To do the kind of job we need to
be doing and make sure not only
we are feeding but also caring
for the longer term feeding
problems with malnutrition,
especially children and pregnant
mothers, this year the money has
not just come.
It's every organization I know
of, facing the same funding
crunch.
With that said, there is
responsibility to the region and
these people.
Without our help in the world's
help and consideration, they
will die.
Nick: This isn't only about
Sudan.
What is the regional risk if the
conflict continues the way it
has?
Cindy: The way I described it
and I will speak directly to the
United States, but we describe
it as a national security issue.
The lack of food, the lack of
ability to farm, people migrate
into other areas and the bad
guys are waiting to do just
that, they will give them food,
they will take their children or
families will wind up selling
their children for one reason or
another just so they can get
food.
That's what we are up against.
Nick: Cindy McCain, thank you
very much.
Cindy: Thank you.
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