Twenty months into the war in Sudan that has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, the country continues to slide into a widening famine characterized by widespread hunger and a significant surge in acute malnutrition. According to a report released on Tuesday, the IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) has identified famine in at least five areas, four months after famine was first confirmed in the Zamzam camp for displaced people in Sudan's North Darfur State.
The FRC forecasts that five more areas will face famine between December 2024 and May 2025. A further 17 areas are at risk of famine. In addition, regions of intense conflict, including parts of Khartoum and Al Jazirah states, may already be experiencing famine conditions (IPC Phase 5). However, a lack of reliable or recent data from these areas makes it impossible to confirm whether this is the case.
With half the population facing high levels of acute food insecurity, Sudan is currently the world's largest hunger crisis. The latest findings mark an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict, which has caused unprecedented mass displacement, a collapsing economy, the collapse of essential social services, and poor humanitarian access.
More than 24.6 million people across Sudan are now experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse.) This includes 8.1 million people in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4) and at least 638,000 people in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophic).
As access to food and nutrition continues to deteriorate for millions of people across the country, months after famine was first confirmed in Zamzam camp, more areas in North Darfur and the Western Nuba Mountains have been identified as experiencing famine conditions.
The most recent FRC report and new Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) projections identify famine with reliable data in at least five areas of Sudan: Zamzam, Abu Shouk, and Al Salam camps in North Darfur and the Western Nuba Mountains for both residents and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Famine is projected in five additional areas between December 2024 and May 2025: Um Kadadah, Melit, El Fasher, At Tawisha, and Al Lait in North Darfur.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the latest findings mark an alarming escalation of hunger and malnutrition during what is typically the harvest season, when food availability should be at its highest.
UNICEF, WFP and FAO are urging the international community to prioritize funding for humanitarian efforts and to use diplomatic channels to secure a ceasefire and unrestricted access. They say it is imperative that all parties to the conflict ensure safe, immediate and unhindered access to areas classified at crisis level or worse.
“The ongoing conflict, continuous displacements and recurrent disease outbreaks have created a dangerous breeding ground for malnutrition in Sudan,” said Lucia Elmi, UNICEF Director of Emergency Operations.
“Millions of young lives hang in the balance. The delivery of life-saving therapeutic food, water and medicine can help stop the deadly malnutrition crisis in its tracks, but we need safe, sustained, and unimpeded access to reach the most vulnerable children and save lives.”
The FRC's classification of increasing hunger during the harvest season indicates that the harvest is not reaching everyone as the conflict continues to restrict markets and the movement of goods.
“We must stop famine in the Sudan – it can be done,” said FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience, Rein Paulsen.
“Above all”, he said, an immediate cessation of hostilities would be an essential first step.
“A protracted famine is taking hold in Sudan,” said WFP’s Director of Food Security and Nutrition analysis, Jean-Martin Bauer.
“People are getting weaker and weaker and are dying as they have had little to no access to food for months and months. WFP is doing everything we can to get a steady and constant flow of food assistance to the hungriest and hardest to reach places in Sudan.”
UNICEF, WFP and FAO continue to scale up their humanitarian response in Sudan, focusing on high-risk areas with integrated health, nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH), social protection and food security activities.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres expressed alarm at the rapidly deteriorating food security situation in Sudan.
“The UN and our partners are scaling up the delivery of food assistance and other essential support for the most vulnerable, but ongoing fighting and restrictions on the movement of relief supplies and personnel continue to imperil aid operations,” the statement said.
Through his spokesperson, Guterres reiterated his call on the warring parties to facilitate rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained access so that humanitarian assistance and staff can reach people in need wherever they are.
“The Secretary-General also underscores the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities to save lives and prevent the crisis in Sudan — and its impact on neighboring countries — from escalating even further in 2025.”
He also called for urgent international support and cooperation to bring the parties closer to a peaceful resolution of the conflict through a durable ceasefire, and to step up funding for humanitarian operations.
Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access and urgent international support, famine risks spreading further in the coming year, threatening the survival of millions of people, especially children, and exacerbating what is already one of the world's worst food crises.
Meanwhile, some 15.6 million people have been displaced by conflict in Sudan, making it the largest displacement crisis in the world. The vast majority of the displaced - more than 12.3 million women, children and men - have been uprooted by the war that erupted in April 2023 and continues unabated.
Over the course of twenty months, more than 12.3 million people have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict, including nearly 9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and more than 3.3 million people who have crossed borders into other countries.
According to the latest UN estimates, some 30.4 million people in Sudan - two-thirds of the population - will be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025, making Sudan not only the largest and fastest-growing displacement and hunger crisis, but also the largest overall humanitarian crisis in the world.
Further information
Full text: Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation - Updated Projections and FRC conclusions for October 2024 to May 2025, IPC, report, released December 24, 2024
https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159433/
Full text: Food and nutrition crisis deepens across Sudan as famine identified in additional areas, UNICEF, WFP, and FAO, joint press release, published December 24, 2024
https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/food-and-nutrition-crisis-deepens-across-sudan-as-famine-identified-in-additional-areas/en
Full text: Alarmed by Worsening Sudan Food Situation, Secretary-General Reiterates Call for Unhindered Humanitarian Access to People in Need, statement issued by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres, released December 24, 2024
https://press.un.org/en/2024/sgsm22503.doc.htm