Sudan's widening hunger crisis
Sudan's war has pushed millions into severe food shortages, with aid agencies reporting that many people are now surviving on just one meal a day. Humanitarian assessments put about 28.9 million people — roughly 61.7% of the population — as acutely food-insecure, and around 14 million have been displaced from their homes. The UN's top humanitarian official warned the situation risks becoming an "abandoned crisis" as the conflict moves into its fourth year. (aljazeera.com, jpost.com, news.un.org)
Millions of people in Sudan are now surviving on one meal a day as war, displacement and blocked aid deepen hunger. (aljazeera.com) A report released on April 13 by Action Against Hunger, CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and the Norwegian Refugee Council said 28.9 million people in Sudan are acutely food-insecure, or about 61.7 percent of the population. (actionagainsthunger.org) The same aid groups said more than 10 million people are facing severe or extreme hunger, and families in North Darfur and South Kordofan are eating leaves and animal feed to get through the day. (care.org) Sudan’s war began on April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum, then spread across Darfur, Kordofan and other regions. (unocha.org) On April 14, United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher said the conflict was entering its fourth year and warned Sudan risked becoming an “abandoned crisis” as civilians faced violence, hunger and collapsing services. (reliefweb.int) The war has also driven what the United Nations calls the world’s largest displacement crisis. United Nations officials said about 14 million people have been uprooted, including more than 9 million displaced inside Sudan. (news.un.org) Food shortages are worsening as front lines cut farmers off from land, traders off from markets and aid convoys off from communities. Aid agencies said people are crossing active battle lines to plant crops, sell goods or reach food distributions. (reliefweb.int) The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis, published in November 2025, estimated 21.2 million people faced acute food insecurity at the September 2025 lean-season peak, including 375,000 in catastrophe, the most extreme level. It projected 19.1 million people would remain in crisis or worse between February and May 2026, while warning some high-concern areas could not be fully classified because of insecurity. (ipcinfo.org) That gap between the IPC estimate and the 28.9 million figure reflects different measures: the IPC counts areas it can classify under its emergency scale, while the new aid-agency report uses a broader measure of acute food insecurity and access problems across the country. (ipcinfo.org, actionagainsthunger.org) The World Food Programme said on April 14 that it is reaching 3.5 million people a month with food, cash and nutrition aid, with two-thirds of that response going to Darfur and Kordofan, where fighting is heaviest and famine has been confirmed in some areas. (globalsecurity.org) Three years after the war began, aid agencies are still asking for the same basics: safe access, more funding and protection for civilians who are trying to find a second meal. (unocha.org)
