Monitor warns conflict and drought raise famine risk in Sudan

A global food crisis monitoring body has warned that ongoing conflict combined with drought conditions is heightening the danger of famine in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a statement issued on Monday that a drought linked to the El Nino weather pattern, affecting roughly half of Sudan, is worsening the effects of fighting and population displacement. This is reducing food supplies, pushing up prices and damaging people's livelihoods.

The IPC noted that healthcare access across affected areas is severely restricted or entirely unavailable, while clean water supplies are dwindling, leaving an already malnourished population at serious risk of illness and death. The organisation brings together 21 bodies and agencies, including UNICEF, the World Bank, the WFP and the WHO.

According to the IPC, farmers are seeing their livelihoods decline and more people are becoming reliant on food aid, with further increases expected in food insecurity, acute malnutrition and deaths.

Crop growth has been poor across nearly two-thirds of farmland in North Darfur and about half in South Darfur, West Kordofan and South Kordofan, where acute water shortages are limiting the chances of agricultural recovery.

The monitor also reported rising severe acute malnutrition in other locations, including Nyala, where the share of children treated for severe acute malnutrition doubled from around 5% to 11% between January and August. Two displacement camps in South Darfur recorded malnutrition rates exceeding famine-level thresholds.

In North Darfur, delayed rainfall disrupted planting and left food reserves critically low, further deepening insecurity. Western Kordofan is experiencing one of its most severe droughts since 2004 due to poor rainfall.