The United Nations and its humanitarian aid partners in South Sudan launched the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) on Monday, seeking US$1.7 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 5.4 million of the most vulnerable people across the country. In 2025, an estimated 9.3 million people - 69 percent of South Sudan's total population of 13.4 million - will require some form of humanitarian aid.
South Sudan's protracted humanitarian crisis is exacerbated by intercommunal conflict, extreme effects of climate change, disease outbreaks, economic crisis, and the impact of the ongoing conflict in neighboring Sudan. More than 905,000 people have crossed into South Sudan since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, and it is estimated that more than 300,000 people will arrive in 2025.
Last week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) raised the alarm about the latest surge of people arriving in South Sudan, with tens of thousands of people fleeing renewed violence in Sudan's border areas. UNHCR said all arrivals were in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance, with water and health care the most urgent needs, especially in light of the ongoing cholera outbreak.
Meanwhile, South Sudanese continue to face high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report released in November, 6.4 million people are severely food insecure at crisis level (IPC Phase 3) or worse.
Of this total, 1.71 million people face emergency levels of acute food insecurity - classified as IPC Phase 4 - and an additional 41,000 people face catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity or IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe).
The world's newest independent nation is one of only five countries and territories in the world facing catastrophic levels of hunger, according to IPC assessments. South Sudanese women, men and children in Phase 5 (Catastrophe) include 10,000 people in Malakal County (Upper Nile State) and an estimated 31,000 South Sudanese returnees who fled Sudan due to the ongoing war.
During the lean season from April to July 2025, the number of severe food insecure people is expected to rise to a staggering 7.7 million - over 57 percent of the country's total population. While women, children and men fleeing war in Sudan are likely to experience the highest levels of food insecurity, many communities in South Sudan will continue to struggle.
At the same time, nearly 2.1 million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition, up from 1.65 million. This includes 650,000 children who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require urgent medical attention.
South Sudan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate-related natural hazards, with droughts and floods contributing to food insecurity. In 2024, heavy rains and rising river levels caused widespread flooding, affecting up to 1.4 million people in 44 of South Sudan's 78 counties and the Abyei Administrative Area as of mid-November 2024. More than 379,000 people had been displaced by the floods.
Many of those hit hardest are people who had not yet recovered from the devastating floods between 2019 and 2022, which affected an average of more than 1 million people each year. The prolonged flooding has made access to basic needs such as food, clean water and health care difficult and contributed to the near collapse of livelihoods.
South Sudan is also home to numerous public health crises, exacerbated by limited immunization coverage, disruptions in immunization services, widespread displacement, and influx of displaced people from Sudan. Inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation and natural disasters such as flooding compound the vulnerability of communities.
Subnational violence in South Sudan, involving community-based militias and civil defense groups, continues to kill and injure civilians, impede humanitarian access throughout the country, and force people to flee their homes. In addition to climate-related disasters, armed conflict and communal clashes are the main causes of displacement.
South Sudan remains one of the most violent contexts for aid workers in the world. According to the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), 34 humanitarian workers were killed in the country in 2023. In addition, humanitarian operations in the country face significant challenges due to escalating violence, threats to staff and assets, bureaucratic obstacles, and logistical constraints.
As South Sudan faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, with 69 percent of the country's 13.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to support some 6 million of the country's most vulnerable people is just 64 percent funded, with $1.1 billion of the $1.8 billion requested received.
On Wednesday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released its annual Emergency Watchlist, highlighting the 20 countries most likely to face escalating humanitarian needs in the coming year. South Sudan ranked in the top 5 on the dire list of countries of particular concern across the world.
Further information
Full text: South Sudan: Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, report, published December 16, 2024
https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/south-sudan/south-sudan-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2025-issued-december-2024