Sudan's food crisis deepens as conflict drags on: WFP report

China

Sudan's food crisis deepens as conflict drags on: WFP report

2024-10-21 14:56 Last Updated At：16:37

Sudan is battling a food security crisis amid a deadly armed conflict, which has contributed to significant increases in the prices of essential commodities, said a report released Sunday by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

According to the agency's Sudan Market Monitor report, the cost of the WFP Local Food Basket rose to 2,231 Sudanese pounds in September, which represented a 16-percent increase from August and a 237-percent surge year on year.

Last month, the price of sorghum surged to 2,021 Sudanese pounds per kilogram, reflecting a sharp 25-percent jump from August and a shocking 371-percent rise compared with September 2023, said the report.

Wheat flour also saw a notable rise, with prices reaching 3,540 Sudanese pounds per kilogram, up 25 percent from the previous month and 194 percent from the same period last year, it said.

Additionally, the Sudanese pound depreciated slightly in the parallel market, falling by 2 percent to approximately 2,600 Sudanese pounds per U.S. dollar, marking a 225-percent decline in value since September 2023. This situation underscores the ongoing inflation and currency challenges that are making it increasingly difficult for households to afford basic necessities.

Sudan has been ravaged by a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since mid-April 2023. The conflict has resulted in approximately 20,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, and the displacement of millions, according to recent estimates by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

One and a half years of violence in Sudan has also created what the WFP warned this March the "world's largest hunger crisis", with nearly 25.6 million people, or over half of the Sudanese population, facing food insecurity, according to U.N. estimates.

Vital financial sector achievements released at Financial Street Forum Annual Conference

2024-10-21 15:29 Last Updated At：16:27

The Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2024 released a series of achievements in Saturday's special session, including a new data-sharing platform, and annual reports on China's banking industry and financial street development. The platform, named Privacy Computing Platform for Financial Sector, is among the highlights of the session. Aiming to facilitate data sharing between institutions and industries, the platform has already engaged 11 major financial institutions by October, such as the Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The niche of the platform is that it can safeguard the privacies of transmitted data while functioning as a hub of data sharing, according to Yu Hejun, executive director of Beijing Financial Street Research Institute.

"The obstacles used to be huge in facilitating data sharing between banks and financial institutions. Now, with this platform, shared data can be used without being visible. That is to say, the data resources can be shared for use, while the privacy can be protected, thus significantly improving efficiency," said Yu.

An annual report on the development of Financial Street was also released during the session. According to the report, by the end of 2023, the capital of financial institutions quartered in the area scaled 151.2 trillion RMB (about 21.3 trillion U.S. dollars), up 10.2 percent year on year and accounting for one-third of China's total, marking a significant agglomeration effect.