Sudan famine risk persists as 19.5M face acute hunger: UN agencies

Nearly 19.5 million people in Sudan are facing acute food insecurity while famine risks persist in several conflict-hit areas, three UN agencies warned Friday, as the country’s civil war enters its fourth year.

In a joint statement, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and UNICEF said two out of every five people in Sudan are experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.

Although the latest IPC analysis did not identify areas currently experiencing famine, around 135,000 people are facing catastrophic food insecurity in 14 hotspots across Darfur and South Kordofan, with conditions feared to worsen during the June-September lean season.

More than five million people are classified under emergency hunger levels, while another 14 million are in crisis conditions, the agencies said.

The statement also warned of a worsening nutrition crisis, with an estimated 825,000 children under the age of five expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026, marking a 7% rise from last year.

“Famine continues to threaten the people of Sudan, as hunger and malnutrition are threatening millions of lives right now,” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said in the statement.

According to FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, to prevent further loss of life and starvation, urgent scale-up of emergency agricultural assistance to boost local food production is a must.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, for her part, warned that without urgent action and sustained humanitarian access, "more children will die."

The agencies said humanitarian assistance remains "critically inadequate compared to the scale of needs," with only 20% of Sudan’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan funded as of April. Between February and May, aid partners aimed to reach 4.8 million people each month, but only an estimated 3.13 million people received assistance in February.

They added that conflict, displacement, and humanitarian access restrictions continue to hamper relief operations, while widespread destruction of infrastructure has severely limited access to health care, clean water, and sanitation.

They called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urged the international community to increase funding and humanitarian access to prevent further loss of life.