The humanitarian meltdown in those parts of Sudan referred to as Darfur is quickly emerging as a legal and ethical point of departure by the international community. With millions of people being acutely food insecure and numerous zones having been officially declared in famine with more than 25m people, there is now formal investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the use of starvation as the implemented weapon of war. The implications of this development are not within the courtroom. They brutally attack the very essence of what constitutes legitimate conflict, humanitarian protection and responsibility by the state in one of the most explosive areas on the planet.
The Human Toll of Engineered Starvation
Verified famine and escalating needs
Sudan’s famine in 2025 is not the result of a natural disaster. It is an engineered phenomenon, rooted in targeted violence, sieges, and the obstruction of humanitarian aid. Independent IPC assessments have confirmed famine conditions in Zamzam, Abu Shouk, and Al Salam camps in North Darfur, alongside the Nuba Mountains. These are not isolated pockets. Seventeen additional districts now hover at the brink of Phase 5 (Catastrophe) food insecurity.
Malnutrition and mortality rates have soared. UNICEF reports a 46% spike in severe wasting among children in North Darfur, where mortality is rising by the week. Humanitarian groups warn that over 638,000 people are facing imminent death from starvation, in what is now considered the world’s most acute hunger crisis.
Collapse of essential services
The violence has displaced over 12 million people, with Darfur absorbing the largest burden.The refugee camps around El Fasher and Tawila are still filling up with people that have fled a machinery of violence. These camps not only lack all the amenities but even basic needs such as clean water, food and sanitation hence making them a centre of illness and death.
Overcrowding, malnutrition, and a complete lack of access to medical attention are enhancing measles, cholera, and malaria outbreaks. There are widespread reports of entire maternal health, vaccine and medicine distribution channels collapsing in aid workers in many regions. Even the survivors of hunger face the risk of death with the preventable disease due to lack of humanitarian access.
Starvation as a Strategy: ICC Brings Legal Weight
The framework for prosecution
The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor has invoked Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which explicitly criminalizes the use of starvation against civilian populations in armed conflict. Citing verified evidence, the court has begun gathering witness testimony and satellite data pointing to deliberate tactics that aim to destroy food systems, block humanitarian corridors, and depopulate entire regions.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are both accused of the use of siege attacks to surround towns and displacement camps. Humanitarian access has not just been denied through direct assaults, but also through the screen of bureaucracy which has fallen against humanitarians in the form of denial of entry visas to aid workers or prevention of relief convoys.
The targeting of aid and infrastructure
Looting and destruction of food warehouses, hospitals and water stations have been reported extensively on a systematic basis. There is an overlapping of famine conditions and corresponding humanitarian access blocks as per reports made by the local and international NGOs. Darfur’s Masalit and Fur communities, often caught in the crossfire, are among those most targeted.
The ICC has begun to trace chains of command for orders that facilitated the weaponization of food and access. Legal experts warn that, while difficult to prove intent in famine cases, the scale and pattern of deprivation may satisfy the burden of proof needed to secure convictions.
A Humanitarian System Under Siege
Aid agencies overwhelmed and underfunded
The humanitarian response to Sudan’s crisis is grossly inadequate. The United Nations and World Food Programme have called for $4.2 billion to meet 2025 needs, but less than a quarter of that amount has been committed. Even worse, on the ground insecurity implies that even funded missions will not reach the most vulnerable populations.
Over 110 aid workers have been killed or wounded, others kidnapped since the conflict re-erupted. Humanitarian corridors are seen as battle zones and convoys are regularly shot down or obstructed.
Insecurity is not just a byproduct of war; it is a tactic in its own right.
As one team in North Darfur’s Tawila reported, families are
“eating leaves, drinking contaminated water, and burying their children with no medical care in sight.”
Disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups
Children account for more than 40% of those facing famine. Many are orphaned, severely malnourished, and without access to basic medical treatment. Pregnant women, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities face elevated risks of sexual violence, enforced displacement, and starvation.
UNHCR and local partners have recorded cases of entire villages depopulated through hunger and coercion. In many regions, famine is not just a humanitarian disaster—it is functioning as a demographic weapon aimed at controlling contested territories.
Legal and Diplomatic Pressures Mount
ICC’s growing role in Sudan’s accountability process
The ICC’s move to expand its Darfur case files is an attempt to establish accountability in a context of total impunity. Its prosecutors have explicitly warned that
“famine imposed by obstruction or neglect is no less a crime than direct violence,”
and pledged to pursue those enabling starvation with the same seriousness as those carrying out physical massacres.
Still, international justice mechanisms have a checkered record in Sudan. Arrest warrants for Omar al-Bashir, issued in 2009 and 2010, were never executed by several ICC member states. The risk remains that indictments alone will not alter battlefield behavior unless accompanied by global political and economic pressure.
International response divided and delayed
While the UN has passed resolutions calling for unimpeded humanitarian access, tangible enforcement mechanisms are missing. The African Union’s mediation efforts have failed to secure even short-term ceasefires for aid delivery. Western governments, preoccupied with crises in Ukraine, Gaza, and Taiwan, have offered statements of concern but little coordinated action.
The fragmentation of attention and funding means Sudan’s famine is becoming a “silent crisis”—widely acknowledged but insufficiently prioritized.
Voices from the Ground: A Call to Action
This individual has commented on the issue in an interview at the BBC World Energy stressing that the slow response concerning aid to delay decisive international intervention are helping those perpetrating the problem to use famine as a weapon of war in Darfur. The point made during the interview was the necessity to monitor the situation in real time, increase humanitarian corridors and the sanctions against individuals impeding the delivery of aid.
" We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur." Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan @IntlCrimCourt on the situation in Sudan pic.twitter.com/WTxBsWeHgT
— James Joseph (@James_JosephTDL) July 10, 2025
The Test of Law, Will, and Humanity
Sudan’s war is not only destroying cities—it is collapsing entire systems of life and survival. The ICC’s attempt to classify famine as a prosecutable weapon marks a legal evolution, but one that needs diplomatic and financial reinforcement to have any meaningful deterrent effect. Humanitarian actors on the ground are stretched beyond capacity, while civilians—particularly children—are dying in avoidable numbers.
Whether the world can respond with the urgency and coordination required will determine not just Sudan’s immediate future, but the precedent set for how conflict-induced famine is addressed globally. If Darfur becomes the test case for famine prosecution, it may also become a measure of how far international law and collective conscience can be stretched before irrelevance.
The question now is not whether we know what is happening—but whether anyone with power intends to stop it.
