One year after famine was first confirmed in Sudan's North Darfur state, and 843 days after the war erupted, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that families trapped in the besieged state capital of El Fasher face starvation. The town is cut off from humanitarian access, leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), heavy fighting continues in North Darfur, with multiple reports of civilian casualties in recent days. Clashes erupted in El Fasher on Friday and Saturday, following earlier fighting between armed groups, including around the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people, which hosts some 25,000 children, women, and men.
WFP has not been able to deliver food assistance to El Fasher by road for over a year, as all roads leading there are blocked. In June, a joint WFP and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) convoy carrying food and nutrition supplies for El Fasher was attacked — five people were killed and the supplies were destroyed.
The UN food agency continues to provide limited cash assistance to 250,000 people in the town with which they can purchase whatever food they can find in the markets. However, this assistance falls far short of the massive and rising needs in the besieged city.
“Everyone in El Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, WFP's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, in a statement on Tuesday.
“People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”
With trade routes cut off and supply lines blocked, the cost of basic food items such as sorghum and wheat, used to make traditional flatbreads and porridges, has increased by up to 460 percent in El Fasher compared to the rest of Sudan.
Local groups set up community kitchens during the war to provide hot meals to hungry people, but only a few are still functioning. Attacks on civilian infrastructure, including markets and clinics, have become commonplace.
Reports indicate that some families are resorting to consuming animal fodder and food waste to survive. Many who have managed to flee cite an escalation of rampant violence, looting, and sexual assault.
The UN agency is reaching over four million people across Sudan each month, including 5.5 million in May alone in the hardest-hit and most food-insecure areas of the country. This includes nearly 1.7 million people — 80 percent of those in locations confirmed as experiencing famine or at risk of famine — and over 600,000 women and children who are being supported with nutritional supplements.
Sudan is the only country in the world where famine has been confirmed in multiple areas and continues to spread. Ten locations have been declared famine zones: eight in North Darfur State and two in the Western Nuba Mountains. Seventeen other areas, including parts of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, Khartoum, and Al Jazira, are at risk of famine.
WFP said its assistance has helped reduce the risk of famine in six areas of Central Darfur State and two areas of West Darfur State. However, the rainy season is approaching, which will soon cut off road access to Darfur. Any fragile progress could be reversed if assistance is interrupted.
“We have made progress under the most difficult conditions,” said Corinne Fleischer, WFP's director of supply chain and delivery.
“But access is still blocked to key locations like El Fasher. We must be given the space to reach all civilians in need.”
As of Friday, WFP has received clearance from the Sudanese government in Port Sudan to send a convoy of humanitarian assistance to El Fasher. But the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have held the North Darfur capital under siege for over a year, have yet to communicate support for pausing the fighting to allow humanitarian goods to move into the town.
“WFP is ready with trucks full of food assistance to send into El Fasher,” said Fleischer. “We urgently need guarantees of safe passage.”
Over the next six months, the UN agency requires US$645 million to continue providing emergency food, cash, and nutrition assistance across the country. Already, pipeline breaks are forcing painful sacrifices. Some families in displacement camps in eastern Sudan who have relied on WFP support for over two years are now receiving nothing.
Cholera continues to spread rapidly across Darfur
Meanwhile, cholera continues to rapidly spread across Darfur. On Sunday, UNICEF warned that more than 640,000 children under five are at heightened risk of violence, disease, and hunger in the western region. In North Darfur's Tawila locality, nearly 1,200 cases have been reported since late June, including approximately 300 cases in children and at least 20 deaths.
Tawila, located about 70 kilometers from El Fasher, is home to several hundred thousand displaced people, most of whom fled the deadly attacks on the famine-stricken Zamzam camp on the outskirts of El Fasher in mid-April.
Aid agencies on the ground have been struggling to keep pace with the growing needs in the area. Those arriving in Tawila continue to face dangerous conditions with limited access to food, water, and shelter, as well as a growing threat of disease.
In North Darfur, hospitals have been bombed, and health facilities in areas close to the fighting have been forced to shut down. The severely limited access to healthcare, combined with shortages of clean water and poor sanitation, exacerbates the risk of cholera and other deadly diseases spreading, especially in overcrowded displacement sites.
Recent assessments show that the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur has doubled in the past year. This creates a lethal combination with cholera: children whose bodies are weakened by hunger are far more likely to contract and die from the disease.
UNICEF warns that without immediate and safe access to lifesaving nutrition, health, and water services, the risk of preventable child deaths will continue to escalate.
In South Darfur, health authorities have reported over 1,100 suspected cholera cases and 64 related deaths since late May, with the latest updates pointing to a case fatality rate of over six percent. Shortages of medical supplies, safe drinking water, and sanitation services severely hinder the humanitarian response.
Vital supplies, including vaccines and ready-to-use therapeutic food, have largely been exhausted. Efforts to replenish these supplies are becoming more difficult as humanitarian access is nearly nonexistent and aid convoys are being looted or attacked. Bureaucratic impediments to the delivery of supplies and services have worsened the situation.
“Despite being preventable and easily treatable, cholera is ripping through Tawila and elsewhere in Darfur, threatening children’s lives, especially the youngest and most vulnerable,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative for Sudan, in a statement.
“We are working tirelessly with our partners on the ground to do everything we can to curb the spread and save lives – but the relentless violence is increasing the needs faster than we can meet them.“
Staggering needs throughout the country
Over the past week, Yett traveled from Port Sudan in the eastern part of the country to Al Jazira and Khartoum states. There, he witnessed the impact that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is having on children and families.
“During the mission, I saw homes, houses, and buildings destroyed. I saw our warehouse in Khartoum looted and reduced to rubble. I saw our humanitarian supplies in that warehouse had been destroyed,” the UNICEF official told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday via video link from Port Sudan.
“I saw communities uprooted and children who had been forced to flee living in overcrowded neighborhoods. I met mothers who walked for very long distances to find safety, and health workers who cared for the sick and malnourished despite the risks.”
Jett had visited Jebel Aulia, one of two localities in Khartoum State identified as being at extreme risk of famine. The area carries 37 percent of the state’s malnutrition burden and has been most impacted by the ongoing violence and access constraints.
“Malnutrition is rife, and many of the children are reduced to just skin and bones. Children and families in the neighborhood are often sheltered in small, damaged or unfinished buildings,“ he said.
The UNICEF official stressed that the scale of the needs was staggering and that aid agencies were being stretched to their limits.
"Sadly, this is true across the country, with the situation deteriorating rapidly. Children are dying from hunger, disease, and direct violence. They are being cut off from the very services that could save their lives,” he added.
“This is not hypothetical. It is a looming catastrophe. We are on the verge of irreversible damage to an entire generation of children not because we lack the knowledge or the tools to save them, but because we are collectively failing to act with the urgency, and at the scale this crisis demands.”
The impact of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis
Since April 15, 2023, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been engaged in a brutal war that has caused an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Currently, over 30 million people require urgent relief, making this the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
Sudan is also grappling with the world's largest and most severe displacement crisis. Since the war began, more than 13 million people had been forced to flee their homes. Over 4 million of those displaced have crossed into neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 1.3 million displaced people have returned to their areas of origin in recent months, reducing the overall displacement figure to over 12 million since the war began.
Children account for at least half of those in need of aid and more than half of those displaced since April 2023. Approximately 24 million children in Sudan are at risk of violence, abuse, exploitation, and trauma. Those separated from their families or unaccompanied face heightened risks.
Sudan is also facing the world's largest hunger crisis due to the war. Across the country, some 25 million people are experiencing acute hunger. Of those, at least 638,000 are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), and 8.1 million are classified as experiencing emergency levels (IPC Phase 4).