Sudan

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Partnership (IPC) alerts today of famine-level acute malnutrition detected in two more localities in North Darfur, Um Baru and Kernoi. Just three months ago, the IPC warned that famine was ongoing in Darfur and Kordofan states, with a high risk that these conditions would further spread.

The newly identified levels of acute malnutrition represent extreme, life-threatening deprivation, and famine may soon be confirmed by the IPC in these additional areas. For small children, the danger is especially acute: malnutrition gravely weakens their immunity, leaving them far more vulnerable to disease at a time when healthcare and other services have been severely disrupted, if not collapsed entirely. We know from global experience that famine confirmations often come too late. Thousands may have already died, and many surviving children are likely to face lifelong damage.

This new alert confirms what communities and responders have been fearing for months. Starvation is rising, and becoming entrenched in areas humanitarian actors are prevented from accessing. Even in places where we can operate, resources are drastically insufficient to meet overwhelming needs and halt the spread of hunger.

Save the Children, along with 21 international humanitarian organisations warn that other areas are likely to be facing similar catastrophic conditions. Yet escalating conflict and severe access restrictions prevent comprehensive assessments and timely response. For nearly three years, armed actors in Sudan have conducted deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure essential for survival. Sudan is also the site of a relentless war on women and girls, who continue to face systematic conflict-related sexual violence. This violence has displaced millions from their homes and livelihoods, devastated people’s ability to produce and distribute food, and routinely blocked their access to water, healthcare and protection services.

Restricted humanitarian access, continued funding shortfalls and insufficient political will are converging into a catastrophe that should never have been allowed to unfold. Without immediate and unhindered access for humanitarian operations, alongside a rapid increase in resources, including to local actors, the spread of starvation will not cease.

Note to Editors:

• List of INGOs: Action Against Hunger (ACF), Africa Humanitarian Action (AHA), CARE, Concordis, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), DanChurchAid (DCA), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Humanity & Inclusion (HI), International Rescue Committee (IRC), LM International, MedGlobal, Medical Teams International (MTI), Mercy Corps, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Plan International, Relief International (RI), Save the Children, Solidarités International (SI),Trócaire, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF), and World Vision.
• Sudan remains the world’s largest hunger, protection and displacement crisis, with over 33 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and over 9 million displaced internally.
• Nearly 29 million people are acutely food insecure (61.7% of the population)
• Almost 10.2 million people fall into the severe and extreme categories of food insecurity, levels associated with extreme hunger, malnutrition and death.
• Women are disproportionately affected: female-headed households are three times more likely to be food insecure than those led by men
• Acute malnutrition for children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women is expected to deteriorate in 2026, with nearly 4.2 million estimated cases of acute malnutrition, including more than 800,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). This number is expected to rise as the situation continues to deteriorate.
• Barely 40% of the required funding to address the humanitarian crisis was secured in 2025
• 57%, more than half of the displaced people who are suffering from hunger do not receive aid due to lack of funding.

New data released today by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), global acute malnutrition rates in the Um Baru and Kernoi localities have reached nearly 53% and 34% respectively, with concerns that nearby areas may also be experiencing similar catastrophic conditions, with the extent remaining unknown due to access constraints [1]. 

Millions of children in Sudan have missed nearly 500 days of learning since the war started in April 2023 in what has become one of the world’s longest school closures, surpassing the worst shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.