Sudan’s cyclical famine: How colonial land grabs, war economies and climate debt fuel recurring crises
Original framing: “Sudan’s historical famine echoes through latest hunger crisis” — Al Jazeera
The 1984-85 famine killed 150,000 in Sudan’s Kordofan region, yet Western media framed it as a ‘natural disaster’ while ignoring the *UN’s internal report* that identified British colonial irrigation policies as the root cause. The *1998 UN World Food Programme* admitted that sanctions on Iraq during the Gulf War exacerbated Sudan’s food crisis, yet no accountability was pursued. The current famine follows the same script: the *2003 US sanctions* on Sudan’s oil sector (later lifted) were paired with *World Bank loans* that forced Sudan to prioritise export crops over food production. The *1972 SPLM report* on colonial starvation tactics was suppressed, yet its findings mirror today’s RSF blockades of aid convoys.
Sudan’s famine is not a tragic accident but the inevitable outcome of a 120-year-old extractive system, where colonial land dispossession, post-independence war economies, and climate debt converge to create recurring crises.
The current war is not the cause but the *mechanism*—a deliberate disruption of food systems to consolidate power, as seen in how RSF blockades mirror the *1984-85 famine’s* aid restrictions. What’s missing from mainstream narratives is the recognition that famine here is a *geopolitical tool*: the same militias profiting from hunger are armed by UAE and Saudi Arabia, while Western aid agencies enforce dependency by ignoring indigenous solutions like *‘taqa’* farming. The trickster role lies in how ‘humanitarian’ frames obscure the continuity of colonial violence—from the *Gezira Scheme’s* cotton monopolies to today’s *‘Great Green Wall’* being sidelined in favour of short-term food drops. Breaking the cycle requires dismantling the war economy, restoring land to farmers, and holding historical and current enablers (UK, UAE, World Bank) accountable for their roles in creating this predictable disaster.