Sudan’s food crisis is worsening under the weight of a war that has continued for more than 3 years, amid declining humanitarian funding, scarce rainfall, reduced purchasing power of the pound and rising production and transport costs.
World Food Programme cuts Sudan rations
The World Food Programme says around 20 million people are facing hunger in the country, including 5 million who have reached emergency levels. The programme has been forced to provide partial food rations because of a lack of resources. The crisis is particularly concentrated in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur and Kordofan states, as well as shelters and displacement camps suffering food shortages.
Declining funding for United Nations agencies and national humanitarian organisations has reduced assistance to affected families, as needs grow because of the continuing fighting and displacement.
Aid funding falls by about half
World Food Programme acting director Carl Skau said, following a visit to Khartoum in mid-September, that funding allocated for the programme’s operations in Sudan had fallen by about half this year. He said the war was pushing more people towards hunger, alongside rising prices and reduced aid budgets resulting from the Middle East crisis.
Omar al-Atrash, an activist in emergency rooms, said several kitchens relying on direct grants in the capital and other states had stopped serving meals or reduced the quantities. This coincides with a growing number of displaced people heading to Omdurman and the city of Kosti in White Nile State, fleeing escalating fighting in northern and western Kordofan.
Scarce rainfall drives up maize prices
Food supply pressures have doubled because of scarce rainfall in maize-producing states, where maize is a staple food for Sudanese people. Since the beginning of September, maize prices have risen weeks before the harvest season, unlike in previous seasons, when prices usually fell as the new crop approached the market.
Mohamed Abdel Qader, a representative of a trading company at the Gedaref grain exchange, said maize prices had risen by about 25% in one month. He attributed the increase to indications of lower production and a reduction in cultivated areas because of scarce rainfall and higher farming costs, predicting that prices would continue to rise as demand for the crop grew.
Abdel Qader said some maize varieties are used to produce animal feed, warning that insufficient rainfall would affect not only crops but also grazing land. In his view, this could lead to a further rise in red and white meat prices as the costs of raising animals and providing feed increase.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said total rainfall during the June-to-September season was below average in most crop-producing areas. It said this had affected the germination and growth of crops and raised concerns about the size of Sudan’s grain harvest in 2026.
Falling pound puts pressure on families and markets
Voluntary-work experts believe that the decline in the pound’s purchasing power, alongside the continuing rise in the prices of goods and services, represents economic pressure worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
Higher fuel prices have also increased the cost of transporting agricultural and food products between states, affecting the cost of relief and distribution operations carried out by local and international organisations. These costs have constrained aid agencies’ ability to reach the worst-affected areas and those receiving displaced people.
Saleh Abdullah, a shopkeeper in southern Khartoum, said the pound’s decline against foreign currencies had coincided with continued increases in the prices of basic goods. Meanwhile, shrinking incomes and the loss of livelihoods for millions of citizens had left most families unable to secure their daily meals.
In White Nile State, which hosts hundreds of thousands of people affected by the war, volunteers said displaced people in safe areas and shelters were facing continuously rising living costs. The financial assistance provided to them was no longer sufficient to cover their needs, increasing pressure on host communities that are themselves facing difficult economic conditions.
In Khartoum, Osman al-Jundi, the founder and operator of the Fakka Riq charitable kitchens, said support previously received by charitable kitchens and emergency rooms from foreign and national organisations, as well as philanthropists, had declined sharply in recent months. He said the drop had led to the closure of most kitchens, adding that he had shut down 11 kitchens in Khartoum State and was now running only two.
Al-Jundi attributed the reduction in support to the limited resources of foreign and national organisations and the prolonged war, which had affected the ability of businesspeople and wealthy donors to continue making contributions. He added that the return of some volunteers to their jobs after Khartoum and the states of Gezira and Sennar were retaken had reduced the number of workers, while rising food prices had increased the cost of preparing meals for affected people.
Al-Jundi said the need for charitable kitchens was growing as the prices of goods and services reached levels beyond the means of a broad section of the population. He suggested that the government and organisations establish markets offering goods at reduced prices to ease the burden of living costs on affected families and help kitchens and community initiatives continue their work.
In contrast, Sudanese Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Ismat Qurashi said the agricultural season, which is nearing its end, “promises a good harvest”, despite scarce rainfall in some areas because of climate change. He pointed to the removal of large areas of Darfur and Kordofan from production, as well as higher farming costs because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Qurashi denied that there was famine or a food shortage nationwide, saying that what some areas were experiencing was a “policy of starvation and using food as a weapon”. He held the Rapid Support Forces responsible for preventing food from reaching civilians in areas under their control and accused them of spreading fear and chaos, preventing farmers from cultivating their land and looting small producers’ crops.
An official in the media office of the Founding Sudan Alliance, “Tasis”, led by the Rapid Support Forces, rejected the government’s accusations. The official, who asked not to be identified, said areas under the alliance’s control were not suffering a food crisis and that commodity prices in Nyala, South Darfur State, were lower than those recorded in Khartoum.
The official accused the authorities in Khartoum of obstructing aid from reaching people affected by the war in Darfur and Kordofan.
He added that the alliance’s Humanitarian Aid Agency was working to facilitate organisations’ activities and distribute supplies in several areas, amid the continuing dispute between the two sides in the war over responsibility for food shortages and aid reaching civilians.
