Hunger monitor says risk of famine is growing in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the UN-backed global hunger monitor, warned on Monday that the risk of famine is growing in parts of Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan in Sudan. In a new alert, the IPC said a severe El Niño drought is adding to the effects of war. It said aid is not keeping up, held back by a severe lack of funding, insecurity and restricted access.

The IPC is a global partnership that includes the UN emergency food agency WFP, the World Food Programme, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). UN News, the source of the reports used here, is itself a UN outlet. WFP, a UN agency, is also a party to this story because its trucks were attacked.

The IPC reported that surveys in two camps for displaced people in Eastern Jebel Marra, South Darfur, found acute malnutrition among children at 38 and 30.8 per cent. The IPC said this is above the threshold for famine, and that hunger was severe and death rates were high. Across Greater Darfur, 13 of the 17 nutrition surveys carried out since January found critical levels of acute malnutrition. In Nyala, the share of children seeking nutrition help who needed treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled between January and August, from five to 11 per cent.

The IPC said drought now covers more than half of Sudan, wiping out crops in some areas. In North Darfur, 64 per cent of cropland is showing poor plant growth. Rains arrived in late September, too late to save most cereal crops, the alert said, and cereal prices are very likely to keep rising.

The alert described Greater Kordofan as the epicentre of Sudan’s conflict. It said more than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes there since October 2025, and that markets have been hit by more than 170 airstrikes, looting incidents or armed clashes this year.

Aid workers face danger. The IPC said two trucks contracted by WFP came under fire on 2 and 3 October, killing at least one person. The French edition of UN News, reporting on the alert, said one of the incidents was an air strike that killed a driver. The sources reviewed do not say who carried out the attacks.

The IPC said that as of August, only 26 per cent of children expected to need care for severe acute malnutrition with medical complications had received it. Without treatment, as many as two thirds of them could die. As of 8 October, less than half of the humanitarian appeal for Sudan had been funded, the IPC said.

The IPC’s Famine Review Committee said there is not enough survey data for a full analysis, but that the evidence points to a rapidly worsening situation. The alert therefore does not add a new formal famine classification. The committee said: “Famine is the collapse of systems.” It added: “We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe, already of historic proportions.”

The alert called for an end to the fighting, safe and sustained access for aid agencies, especially in North and West Kordofan, and flexible funding on a large scale. The Arabic edition of UN News reported that the committee also called for diplomatic pressure on all parties to the conflict and their external backers. Without a major increase in help, the alert warned, more lives will be at risk.