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UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The nearly year-long conflict between Sudan\u2019s military and paramilitary forces has put the African nation on course to become the world\u2019s worst hunger crisis<\/a> with malnutrition soaring and already claiming children\u2019s lives, the U.N. humanitarian office warned Wednesday.<\/p>\n Edem Wosornu, the director of humanitarian operations, told the U.N. Security Council that already one-third of Sudan\u2019s population \u2013 18 million people \u2013 face acute food insecurity, and catastrophic hunger levels could be reached in some areas of the western Darfur region by the time \u201cthe lean season\u201d arrives in May.<\/p>\n \u201cA recent assessment revealed that one child is dying every two hours in Zamzam camp in El Fasher, North Darfur,\u201d she said. \u201cOur humanitarian partners estimate that in the coming weeks and months, somewhere in the region of around 222,000 children could die from malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n Wosornu called the harrowing violent situation that has seen appalling accounts of ethnic-based attacks, sexual violence including gang rapes<\/a>, and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, \u201cthe stuff of nightmares.\u201d<\/p>\n With the global spotlight now on the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and to a lesser extent on the war in Ukraine, she lamented that \u201cA humanitarian travesty is playing out in Sudan under a veil of international inattention and inaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan<\/a> and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces<\/a> commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo<\/a> broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.<\/p>\n Fighting quickly spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas, but in Darfur it took on a different form, with brutal attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians. Thousands of people have been killed.<\/p>\n Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias against populations that identify as Central or East African. In late January, the International Criminal Court\u2019s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said there are grounds to believe both sides in the current conflict are committing possible war crimes<\/a>, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.<\/p>\n The U.N.\u2019s Wosornu said there has been no respite from fierce fighting in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan which are home to 90% of the people facing emergency levels of food insecurity.<\/p>\n Farmers have been forced to abandon their fields and cereal production has dropped since hostilities moved into Sudan\u2019s breadbasket, Jazeera state, in December, she said.<\/p>\n In these circumstances, the delivery of humanitarian aid should be a lifeline, Wosornu said, but the U.N. appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan in less than 5% funded \u2013 receiving just $131 million.<\/p>\n She expressed hope that a high-level donors conference for Sudan and its neighbors in Paris on April 15 will lead to \u201ctangible commitments\u201d to support aid operations \u201cin the face of looming famine.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, Wosornu said, the U.N. must have access to reach the most vulnerable people in Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan and Jazeera states which \u201ccontinues to be severely obstructed\u201d by the fighting. It also needs more cross-border openings and approvals to deliver aid across conflict lines, she said.<\/p>\n Carl Skau, the U.N. World Food Program\u2019s deputy executive director, told the council the rapidly worsening food security situation in Sudan also has \u201cprofound regional implications.\u201d<\/p>\n