Sudan: Silent Displacement, Silent Starvation

Famine in Sudan has been developing for many years as a result of the legacy of previous wars, long-term mass displacement, intermittent drought due to climate change, and three years of ongoing war crimes, leading to a complex catastrophe.

In August 2025, the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) officially announced that 1.14 million people in the Gaza Strip were suffering from food insecurity and facing phase-4 famine. Meanwhile, half a million people in Gaza City were already suffering from planned and systematic starvation, facing abject poverty and death from hunger (phase 5) as a result of the Israeli occupation`s policies.

In its October 2024 to May 2025 projections, the IPC already had announced that, for more than a year, Sudanese people had been suffering from a policy of starvation and the prevention of aid and food supplies. UN estimates indicate that half of Sudan`s population (24.6 million people) is expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity, representing an unprecedented worsening and spread of the crisis as a result of the devastating conflict that has caused unprecedented mass displacement, the collapse of the economy, the destruction of basic social services, and poor access to humanitarian aid.

These conditions accompanied the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) March 2025 withdrawal from Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the surrounding states. RSF now concentrates in the states of East, South, Central and West Darfur, as well as their 90% control of North Darfur state and some areas in north and west Kordofan

With the RSF’s catastrophic siege of several areas, Darfur hosts the highest percentage of the 755,000 starving persons across 10 affected states. Meanwhile, the cost of the basic commodities in RSF-besieged al-Fashir amounts $1,000 per month per household, of which $700 is for food alone, or more than eight times the cost of basic foodstuffs in any other region in Sudan. That means that one in five households in Darfur suffers severe food shortages with few options available to feed themselves. Because of difficulty of access to war-torn regions, these figures are likely to be an undercounting.

The During 2025, IPC reported that the Zamzam Camp in North Darfur had reached level-5 famine, which also has spread to the camps of al-Salam, Abu Shouq, and the western Nuba Mountains. Famine is spreading to areas of North Darfur, including Umm Kadada, Milit, al-Fashir, al-Tawisa, and al-Lait, looming also in the central Nuba Mountains (including the areas of Dlamy, West Kadugli, Umm Dran, and al-Bourum), and in areas likely to experience large IDP inflows in North and South Darfur. These areas include Taweila, Nyala South, Nyala North, Biliel, Shattaya, al-Sunta, Boram, and Kass in South Darfur, as well as Madani al-Kubra and eastern al-Jazira State, Mayo and Alingaz, in Jabal Awila, Khartoum State, and al-Firdous, in East Darfur State.

Although the number of people who are facing stage-3 hunger classification decreased from 25.6 million to 24.6 million during the harvest season (December 2024–May 2025), not all populations have benefited equally. Siege and intense conflict have disrupted agricultural activities, leading to farmers abandoning their crops, looting, and destruction of stocks. Displaced families, especially those living in residential complexes and public buildings are unlikely to benefit from the harvest, swelling the ranks of the urban food insecure.

Furthermore, 70% of basic facilities and services are dysfunctional and cannot meet the needs of the population. The shortage of food and water has led to an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases such as cholera and acute malnutrition, which is catastrophic for the population trapped in areas where the conflict continues, particularly in al-Jazira, Greater Darfur, Khartoum, Greater Kordofan, Southern Kordofan, and Sennar.

External Factors

As in must such complex catastrophes, external factors also aggravate the situation. While civilians are being besieged, the US has cut off needed funding, and humanitarian aid is being reduced and prevented from reaching besieged areas. Meanwhile, revenues from the gold trade are flowing throughout the country, largely smuggled into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to support and fuel RSF military operations. These agents now further expose victims to systematic and deliberate starvation.

Such factors underscore the global responsibility for the displacement and starvation. However, despite the sheer volume of the catastrophe and numbers of diverse victims, the relatively dismissive media and policy coverage of Sudan relegates the many starved and displaced Sudanese to suffer in silence.

Photo on front page: Sudanese displaced women in al-Fashir Camp under RSF siege. Source: UNHCR. Photo on this page: A child searches for food in a bucket in a camp for displaced people in al-Fashir, North Darfur. Source: picture alliance/Xinhua News Agency/UNICEF.