The International Rescue Committee warned that the risk of famine is rising in parts of Darfur and Kordofan, amid estimates that about 825,000 Sudanese children under five will suffer severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening medical condition if they do not quickly receive therapeutic food and healthcare.
War and drought drive up hunger indicators
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the committee said more than three years of war, alongside severe drought worsened by the El Niño phenomenon, had depleted food stocks, raised commodity prices and reduced millions of Sudanese people’s ability to obtain food. The warning was based on the latest alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the internationally recognised system for assessing levels of hunger and malnutrition.
Its data showed a rising risk of famine in areas of Darfur and Kordofan, alongside deteriorating nutrition indicators and child mortality. The findings do not represent an official famine declaration for all of South Darfur, but showed that the rate of acute malnutrition among children, one of the key indicators used to determine famine, had exceeded the international threshold at two displacement sites, while child deaths had reached emergency levels.
The International Rescue Committee added that more than five million people in Sudan are already facing emergency levels of hunger, while humanitarian needs exceed the ability of organisations operating inside the country to respond.
Agricultural deterioration threatens harvest season
These indicators coincide with forecasts that Sudan will experience one of the worst harvest seasons in its recent history. The forecasts are linked to irregular rainfall, the displacement of farmers and the expansion of battlefronts, as well as rising prices for fuel, seeds and other agricultural inputs. At the same time, families’ available food stocks are shrinking as prices rise and sources of income collapse.
Displaced people and farmers who have lost their crops are being forced to buy their needs from markets, despite prices reaching levels that many cannot afford. The committee described conditions in North Darfur as extremely serious after late rains and drought damaged large agricultural areas and deprived many farmers of the production season.
Displaced farmers have also been forced to buy food instead of producing it themselves. Ongoing fighting and shifting front lines are disrupting markets and supply routes, while preventing people from reaching their agricultural land. The committee warned that worsening drought in surrounding areas could drive more people to flee towards Tawila in search of food, water and basic services.
Displacement has deprived large numbers of families of the farming season and increased their total reliance on humanitarian aid. These developments add to the effects of four seasons in which agriculture was disrupted by the war, which displaced producers, destroyed markets and infrastructure, and cut supply routes.
The war has also increased the cost of transporting food and imposed restrictions on humanitarian organisations’ access to those most in need. The food crisis is therefore linked not only to drought, but also to disrupted agricultural production, markets and supplies, and farmers’ loss of access to their land.
International Rescue Committee calls for urgent food funding
Richard Data, the International Rescue Committee’s director in Sudan, said the El Niño phenomenon was driving Sudanese people directly towards hunger after years of war, adding that the current warning should serve as a wake-up call to donor governments. Data called for an immediate increase in funding for food, healthcare and nutrition programmes, stressing that humanitarian organisations were racing against time as needs expanded faster than the resources available to respond.
The committee stressed, however, that increasing aid, despite its importance, would not be enough while the war continued, humanitarian convoys and relief workers remained exposed to attacks and restrictions, and civilians were unable to access markets, farms and health facilities safely.
Calls to protect civilians and open aid corridors
It called on both sides in the war to stop attacks on civilians and civilian objects, respect international humanitarian law, and allow safe, sustained and unhindered access for aid to areas experiencing military operations.
It also called on donor countries to provide stable funding instead of temporary responses, allowing malnutrition treatment programmes and health services to expand, water and sanitation supplies to be strengthened, and cash assistance to those in need to be increased. The indicators point to a rapid shift from acute food shortages to conditions marked by rising child mortality and severe hunger.
The committee warned that the crisis would expand if the war continued, agriculture was disrupted and aid routes remained restricted, as famine-related thresholds had emerged at two displacement sites in South Darfur.
Containing the risk, according to the demands set out in the statement, depends on ending the war, protecting agricultural activity, opening aid routes and rapidly increasing funding, particularly as hundreds of thousands of children face the risk of severe acute malnutrition and need urgent therapeutic and healthcare intervention.
