The UN World Food Programme has warned that famine is now looming in Sudan as the conflict enters its 1,000th day, describing the situation as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the WFP said food stocks in Sudan are expected to be completely exhausted by the end of March unless urgent funding is secured. The agency said it requires $700 million to continue operations through June.
Ross Smith, the WFP’s director of emergency preparedness, said that despite limited breakthroughs on the ground, including joint UN convoys such as the one that reached Kadugli in October, which briefly opened access to families isolated for months, these gains are now at serious risk.
He warned that shrinking food rations threaten to erase recent progress, noting that the WFP has been forced to cut assistance to the bare minimum required for survival.
The programme said conditions across Sudan amount to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. More than 21 million people are facing acute hunger, while nearly 12 million have been displaced from their homes. According to the statement, 3.7 million children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
Surveys conducted in North Darfur revealed record levels of malnutrition, with more than half of children affected in some locations.
The WFP stressed that as fighting continues and no political solution is in sight, it is struggling to keep life saving emergency operations running amid rising needs and rapidly diminishing resources.
Since the outbreak of war in April 2023, the programme has reached more than 10 million of Sudan’s most vulnerable people. It has also been providing monthly assistance to around 4 million people across Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazira, including areas that were previously inaccessible.
The agency warned that continued fighting risks pushing entire communities beyond the brink.
