On January 15, the World Food Programme issued a plea for $700 million to fund its work in Sudan, warning that the organisation risks running out of food stocks by the end of March. Ross Smith, WFP’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, stated that the organisation had already been forced to reduce rations to the minimum for survival, mostly because of funding cuts in international assistance.
Since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), civilians have borne the overwhelming cost of a conflict marked by prolonged violence, political deadlock, and the collapse of basic services. The power struggle has evolved into a nationwide emergency of hunger, displacement, and insecurity that humanitarians have described as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Amid the deadlock in negotiations, the $700 million required by WFP would provide desperately needed support, allowing the organisation to fund its operations until June.
Over 21 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine officially declared in areas where sustained fighting has made humanitarian access nearly impossible. At the same time, violence has uprooted close to 12 million people, forcing families to flee their homes repeatedly in search of safety, food, and shelter. Displacement has fractured communities, eroded coping mechanisms, and exposed civilians, particularly women and children, to heightened risks of exploitation, abuse, and disease. An estimated 3.7 million young children, along with pregnant and breastfeeding women, are suffering from malnutrition. In parts of North Darfur, there have been reports of unprecedented levels of acute malnutrition, with more than half of children affected.
Humanitarian actors have worked under extreme constraints to mitigate the worst impacts of the crisis. The World Food Programme has managed to deliver food, cash, and nutritional support to more than 10 million people since April 2023. Aid has gradually expanded into areas previously cut off by fighting, including regions of Darfur and Kordofan, and across Khartoum and Al Jazira states. In famine-affected zones, sustained assistance has helped stabilize conditions in several locations, demonstrating that large-scale hunger can still be reversed when access and resources align. In the past six months alone, WFP has provided life-saving assistance to nearly 1.8 million people across the country.
Yet these gains remain fragile. Severe funding shortfalls are now forcing aid agencies to reduce food rations to bare survival levels. The erosion of humanitarian assistance carries broader security implications: hunger fuels displacement, weakens social cohesion, and heightens tensions within and between communities competing over scarce resources.
So far, political efforts to halt the violence have repeatedly failed. On January 14, officials from the Quad countries - the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - met in Cairo, joined by representatives from the UN and the European Union, but failed to achieve significant results. Continued fighting, allegations of war crimes, and regional rivalries have further obstructed pathways to peace.
