When I was attending Mount St. Joseph University, I read a book by Jimmy Carter called “Talking Peace, A Vision for the Next Generation.” President Carter encouraged us to take action for peace, and to bring attention to forgotten conflicts around the world.

Carter wrote, “The tragedy is that often most national leaders and the news media pay little attention to conflicts around the world until wars cause such destruction and starvation that they can be ignored no longer.”

That is sadly true today, too. In Sudan there is a civil war taking place right now and people are starving to death. But you hear very little about this tragedy.

President Carter also brought attention to the plight of the suffering of children in war zones. Carter wrote “Children in particular suffer — many do not know when to expect their next meal, whether they will ever attend school again, or where their parents might be.”

This is sadly the case today, too. According to a recent press release from UNICEF, “More children than ever are estimated to be either living in conflict zones or forcibly displaced due to conflict and violence. A record number of children affected by conflict are having their rights violated, including being killed and injured, out of school, missing lifesaving vaccines, and being critically malnourished.”

Perhaps the best way to pay respect to President Carter upon his passing at age 100 is to continue his peace mission. Humanity calls us to action. We need to help end these wars and bring aid to the suffering children. We could start with Sudan, a country Carter tried to help during his post-presidency. In 1989, during a previous conflict in Sudan, Carter helped mediate a resumption of relief flights to bring food to starving war victims.

Today, we sadly again need the same type of help for the hungry in Sudan. A civil war erupted in Sudan in 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The fighting for power in the country has led to severe damage to agriculture. The gathering storm of famine is taking shape in Sudan. More areas of the war-torn country are running out of food.

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) warns that five areas of Sudan are now suffering famine, and more are projected to fall victim.

There are 24.6 million people in Sudan experiencing severe hunger. Over 8 million of this group are facing emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger. Millions are in danger of starvation now or in the near future.

“A protracted famine is taking hold in Sudan,” said WFP’s Director of Food Security and Nutrition analysis, Jean-Martin Bauer. “People are getting weaker and weaker and are dying as they have had little to no access to food for months and months. ”

Back in October, UNICEF warned that Sudan was one of the countries facing shortages of Ready-to-use-Therapeutic-Food to treat severely malnourished children. Funding needs to be increased for food aid to Sudan.

What Sudan needs is global attention to this massive crisis which also spreads into neighboring countries, including South Sudan, where refugees have fled. There needs to be a ceasefire negotiated between the civil war combatants. There must also be increased support for humanitarian aid. With the lack of attention on a crisis, it means fewer donations for hunger relief. We can’t let people starve to death because of apathy and neglect.

Each one of us can step forward to make a plea for peace and support humanitarian organizations in Sudan like WFP, UNICEF, Save the Children, Catholic Relief Services and others. Write to the president and representatives in Congress about the war in Sudan, urging them to make peace and humanitarian aid a priority.

Carter spent a good deal of his post-presidency trying to bring attention to forgotten war-torn lands through the Carter Center. You can help too. So many devastated areas need help, including Sudan, D.R. Congo, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and many others.

President Carter believed everyone could make a difference in building peace and unite on this issue. We can each do that today to help Sudan and other countries facing war, hunger and disease.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Cleveland Plain Dealer, History News Network and many other news outlets. Lambers volunteered to write the Hunger Heroes section of WFP’s online learning game Freerice.