Sudan's Famine Shadow: 19.5 Million Face Acute Hunger

Synopsis

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicates that more than 19.5 million people (more than 40% of Sudan's population) in the country are facing acute food insecurity. The Sudanese Armed Forces versus Rapid Support Forces (S.A.F. versus R.S.F.) conflict has left agriculture in shambles, humanitarian access cut and driven by the displacement of almost nine million people. Sudan is rapidly heading towards one of the worst food crises in recent years as the world's eyes turn to other crises.

The deliverance of a nation from the brink of Famine

When she was discovered at a makeshift displacement camp outside El-Fasier (North Darfur) after staying without food for two days, she was referred to a medical team for treatment.Fatima Abdullah was found to have been without food for two days at a makeshift camp outside El-Fasher, North Darfur, and was referred for treatment to a medical team.

A former school teacher from Nyala, she left her home in March 2024 when her neighbourhood in the town came under attack from Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Together with her three children she came to the camp with nothing else.

Her story is like hundreds of thousands of others. Today, Sudan has a food emergency of unprecedented magnitude.

The Numbers Behind the Crisis

According to the globally recognised metric for acute food insecurity, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), some 19.5 million people in Sudan are facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or higher) in the May 2025 assessment.

To understand the severity: IPC Phase 3 is defined as a ‘Crisis’ level, where there is a clear and identified food consumption gap, and acute malnutrition rates are above thresholds. Phase 4 is defined as "Emergency" conditions with high acute malnutrition and high level of food deprivation. Phase 5 is Catastrophe - active famine.

The IPC identified areas in Darfur and Kordofan that have already reached Phase 5. Today Sudan is among few countries in the world that have recorded active famine conditions.

War as the Engine of Hunger

The immediate cause of the food crisis in Sudan is the ongoing civil war in the country between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that began in April 2023. The crisis has spiraled into a war of horrors, in which civilians' and civilian infrastructure are being systematically targeted and destroyed, and in which the United Nations has described as deliberate efforts to block humanitarian access.

Sudan's agricultural sector — which once sustained the country and provided modest export revenues — has been gutted. Swarms of terrain have been taken off cultivation, farm workers have been displaced, and crops left unharvested, as conflict has made farming impossible in many areas. In early 2025, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) projected a cereal production shortfall in Sudan of almost 46% in states affected by the conflict, relative to pre-conflict averages.

Livestock which are a livelihood asset for millions of Sudanese households have been stolen or slaughtered. In some conflict zones, the death rate of livestock had become "catastrophic," according to the FAO's Sudan Agricultural Situation Report.

Access to Humanitarian Aid: A Narrow window.Access to Humanitarian Aid: A Narrow window

Nearly reaching those most in need – that has been a concern repeatedly raised by aid agencies. There are currently more than 30 active conflict areas in Sudan and, on a number of occasions, organisations have had to cease activities due to the conflict.

In April 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that almost 14.6 million people in Sudan were "acutely inaccessible" to humanitarian assistance, owing to ongoing conflict, mobility restrictions enforced by armed groups and the failure of road infrastructure.

This is a displacement that has been scaled.This is a scaled displacement

IDMC estimates that Sudan is the country with the world's largest internal displacement crisis. By early 2025, around 8.9 million IDPs were identified, of whom 1.8 million had crossed into neighbouring countries, such as Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

There is almost total disruption of livelihoods for those displaced. Markets that once provided residents in urban areas have been cut off. Those communities that once farmed their own food now reside in camps where food distribution — if it takes place at all — is sporadic and inadequate.

Children of the sharpest edge

The youngest Sudanese are most at risk. UNICEF estimates that about 3.5 million children under 5 are acutely malnourished in Sudan, and around 700,000 are severely acutely malnourished (SAM), which is a risk factor for death if not treated with therapeutic feeding.

International Response: Chronically Underfunded

Sudan's humanitarian response plan in 2025 was $4.2 billion in donor contributions, which is its largest response plan to date for Sudan. It was still underfunded by less than 15% as per OCHA's Financial Tracking Service (FTS) through May 2025.

The gap is stark. The war has created a tremendous humanitarian crisis, but other crises around the world — in Gaza, Ukraine, and others — have stretched donors' capacities and political interest. Aid groups say that if there is not a significant increase in funding and access to humanitarian assistance, the situation will continue to get worse over the next few months during the June-September lean season in Sudan.

Without pause, a Crisis without a Ceasefire in Sight

The cause of Sudan's food crisis is an on-going conflict. Several mediation attempts, spearheaded by the African Union, Saudi Arabia and the United States, have led to no lasting ceasefire. The UN and independent monitors have been critical of both SAF and RSF for targeting civilian infrastructure and even in some cases, for employing food deprivation as a deliberate strategy of war.

Conflict, drought and displacement have been a reality for decades in Sudan. But, the combination of civil war, agricultural failures and humanitarian restrictions that has unfolded since April of 2023 is a new and darker chapter — one in which, as the IPC warns, the worst is yet to come.

The battle for the question of 'when' the fighting will cease is not a political one for Fatima Abdullah and millions of others like her. It is existential.