Famine declarations are relatively rare. But the leading international authority on hunger crises this week declared that regions of war-torn Sudan face catastrophic shortages of food, water and medicine, just months after the same multi-agency body — the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — formally declared famine in Gaza had reached catastrophic levels amid Israel's campaign against Hamas.

Previously, the IPC has confirmed catastrophic famine conditions in Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020.

So why are formal famine declarations — meaning that there is documentation of widespread starvation, widespread illness and widespread mortality — so rare?

NPR spoke with two people working within the web of government officials, aid workers, and analys

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