Sudan hunger crisis: 19.5 million people face acute hunger as famine warnings grow

More than 30 governments warned on 26 October that hunger in Sudan is getting sharply worse. They said 19.5 million people, 41% of the population, face high levels of acute hunger, including 5 million at emergency level.

The number of areas facing severe food shortages, first put at 14, is expected to double, the statement said, and more than 825,000 children could suffer severe acute malnutrition.

Famine levels in Darfur camps

The warning followed an October alert from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the system used to measure hunger worldwide. It said an El Niño drought is making conditions worse in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan.

Surveys in two displacement camps in Eastern Jebel Marra found child malnutrition rates of 38% and 30.8%, above the threshold for famine, according to the UN. The IPC's Famine Review Committee said there was not enough data for a full analysis, but that the evidence points to a fast-worsening situation. More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes in Greater Kordofan since October 2025.

Famine is not new to Sudan. The IPC has confirmed it in nine areas since the war began. Its last full analysis, in May, found no area in famine at that point, but listed 14 areas in Darfur and South Kordofan at risk.

The world's worst humanitarian crisis

The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023. Almost 34 million people now need aid, according to the UN's aid coordination office.

The UN's 2026 plan aims to help 20.4 million of them and needs $2.9 billion. As of 8 October, less than half of that appeal had been funded.

The World Health Organization has called Sudan the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 13.6 million people displaced. The UN says eight million Sudanese children are out of school.

A drone war, and no one at the table

At talks in Geneva on 21 October, Swiss State Secretary Alexandre Fasel said the conflict has become a drone war that mostly kills civilians, and that protecting people and letting aid in cannot wait for a ceasefire. Neither the Sudanese government nor the RSF attended the meeting, which brought together nearly two dozen countries.

The joint statement called on both sides to open all aid routes, including air access into Darfur, to protect aid workers and to stop hitting civilian infrastructure. It also urged donors to fund the winter planting season.