GENEVA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that Sudan risks sliding into deeper levels of hunger as conflict, funding shortages and rising agricultural costs threaten recent gains in the fight against famine.
WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told Reuters that Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with nearly 5 million people facing emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, while more than 100,000 people are living in famine-like conditions classified as IPC Phase 5, the highest level on the international food insecurity scale.
Skau warned that ongoing fighting, shrinking humanitarian funding and rising agricultural production costs—driven in part by regional disruptions linked to the Iran conflict and supply chain interruptions through the Strait of Hormuz—could further deepen the crisis during the current planting season.
He said the WFP has been forced to reduce the number of people receiving food assistance from 5 million last year to about 3.5 million currently, while cutting food rations in several areas because of a $646 million funding gap following aid reductions by major donors, including the United States, the United Kingdom and several European countries.
The warning comes as Sudan enters a critical agricultural season after more than two years of war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a conflict that has displaced millions, disrupted farming and trade, and severely restricted humanitarian access across large parts of the country.
Skau also expressed concern that the prolonged siege experienced by Al Fasher could be repeated in El Obeid, despite recent relative calm that had raised hopes of expanding food assistance there from 100,000 to 250,000 people.
He further warned that renewed fighting in Darfur has forced the closure of the Tiné border crossing with Chad, one of the main humanitarian supply routes into western Sudan. At the same time, record fuel prices and shortages of fertilizers imported from Gulf countries threaten irrigation and crop production, raising fears that Sudan’s food security situation could deteriorate further.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 33 million people requiring humanitarian assistance and millions more at risk of acute food insecurity as the conflict continues.
