The war in Sudan has forced millions of people to flee their homes and created one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is sounding the alarm to prevent more people from dying of hunger.
In Sudan an estimated 7.3 million people have been displaced within the country since mid-April 2023 and two million more have crossed the border into neighbouring countries. Nearly 25 million people need humanitarian assistance.
"There is no escape from suffering. It has been 15 months of uninterrupted violence and spiralling humanitarian crisis," says Mathilde Vu, NRC's Advocacy Manager in Sudan. "When it's not bullets, it's hunger that kills."
More than half the population in Sudan - 25.6 million people - are experiencing crisis levels of hunger, while thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries are struggling to feed their children.
"People are already dying"
"People are already dying of hunger. Our colleagues on the ground in Darfur report that pregnant women are losing their children due to malnutrition, and children are dying of hunger on a daily basis," Vu continues.
Following 14 months of escalating conflict, Sudan has become the world's largest hunger crisis. Over half of the country is currently experiencing severe food insecurity, meaning people don't have reliable access to food and sometimes go more than a day without eating. This is expected to become much worse during the upcoming lean season.
"In some regions people are struggling to eat one meal a day and the majority depend on begging, charity, and relief items where available. Some people are selling their roofing to buy food," says Vu.
Women and children continue to be disproportionately impacted by the hunger crisis. Malnutrition rates among children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly concerning.
"One of my colleagues in Kordofan told me how shocked he was carrying a young child a mother had handed to him: the baby was so light, dangerously underweight."
There is food in the markets, but people cannot afford it. They have lost everything fleeing, including means of livelihood, and prices are spiralling.
"This is going to get worse in the coming months. The conflict is spreading to agricultural lands in the east, threatening the food availability in the country and increasing the number of displaced people."
Neglected and underfunded
Despite the magnitude of the crisis and its destabilising effect on the area between the Red Sea and the Sahel, Sudan remains grossly neglected by the international community. By the end of 2023, the humanitarian response for the year was less than half funded.
"People are dying of hunger in the capital city. This should shock everyone."
"Together with other international aid organisations, we have regularly sounded the alarm that continued and escalating conflict and active denial of humanitarian access was driving Sudan to the brink of famine. But we have not been heard," says Vu.
In April 2024, the international community pledged USD 2.2 billion to address the suffering of the Sudanese people in Sudan and across the wider region. But the promises of solidarity and support by international donors remain largely unfulfilled. The Humanitarian Response Plan remains severely underfunded with only 17 per cent of the required funding received in the first six months of the year.
"After months of inaction by the international community, the situation in Sudan may be reaching the point of no return. Urgent action is required with time rapidly running out," says Vu.
An extraordinary response is needed
Displaced families inside Sudan and in neighbouring countries are being left to fend for themselves. Many lack a roof over their heads, as well as food, water, healthcare, and education for their children.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is present on the ground, both in Sudan and neighbouring countries.
"We are responding to the crisis and scaling up our programmes in both South Sudan and Chad. Together with local responders, the displaced people themselves and their host communities, we are working around the clock to save lives and cover basic needs," Vu explains.
She describes the situation as an extraordinary crisis which demands an extraordinary response.
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NRC's current emergency response and priorities include:
- Fighting against hunger by providing grants to local partners to enable them to set up soup kitchens in the most hard to reach areas and supporting bakeries and small businesses making staples affordable to communities. We are also distributing cash grants to families who have fled so that they can cater to their most urgent needs.
- Providing education activities to children and youth, training teachers on how to deal with war trauma, rehabilitating schools, and distributing school materials and menstrual health kits to schoolgirls.
- Striving to offer dignified homes to displaced families, by providing clean water and toilets in settlements, rehabilitating shelters, training communities on how to improve living conditions and distributing hygiene kits and essential household items.
- Offering more protection to people, by providing safe community spaces, training on women empowerment, cash assistance to very vulnerable individuals and helping displaced people to recover or obtain their identity documents.
In addition, we are continuing with our regular programmes in the region.
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