Sudan faces the world's worst humanitarian crisis as second anniversary
of war nears, UN says
[April 11, 2025]
By EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A nearly two-year-old war has engulfed Sudan in
the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and led the African country to
become the only nation experiencing famine, a senior U.N. official said
Thursday.
Nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face extreme
hunger, while people are dying in famine-hit areas in western Darfur,
said Shaun Hughes, the World Food Program’s emergency coordinator for
Sudan and the region.
Sudan plunged into conflict on April 15, 2023, when long-simmering
tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the
capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast
western Darfur region.
Since then, at least 20,000 people have been tallied as being killed,
though the number is likely far higher.
“By any metric, this is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” Hughes
told U.N. reporters, pointing to over 8 million people displaced within
Sudan and 4 million who have fled across borders to seven countries that
also face hunger and need humanitarian aid.
Famine was initially confirmed last August in Zamzam camp in North
Darfur, where about 500,000 people sought refuge, but Hughes said it has
since spread to 10 other areas in Darfur and Kordofan. He said 17 other
areas are at risk of famine in coming months.
“The scale of what is unfolding in Sudan threatens to dwarf anything we
have seen in decades,” Hughes said.
He warned in a video press conference from Nairobi that “tens of
thousands more people will die in Sudan during a third year of war
unless WFP and other humanitarian agencies have the access and the
resources to reach those in need.”
Late last month, the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a
major symbolic victory in the war. But the rival Rapid Support Forces
paramilitary group still controls most of Darfur and some other areas.
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Hughes said what’s happening in Zamzam camp, which is caught in the
conflict, is “horrific” — as is the situation in North Darfur’s
capital, El Fasher, which has been besieged by the RSF since May
2024. It is the only capital in Darfur that the RSF does not hold.
Hughes said WFP receives daily reports from its humanitarian
partners and contacts on the ground in North Darfur “that excess
mortality is occurring as a result of the famine.”
While WFP has not been able to reach Zamzam with a convoy since
October, he said the agency has been able to help some 400,000
people there, in El Fasher and other camps, by transferring cash
digitally into people’s bank accounts so they can buy food and other
items. However, this is only possible where markets exist.
Hughes said WFP’s assistance to Sudanese people in need has tripled
since mid-2024 and that the agency is now reaching over 3 million
per month, mainly through a surge in the use of digital cash
transfers.
WFP said it wants to help 7 million people in Sudan in the next six
months but needs $650 million.
Hughes was asked whether Trump administration funding cuts were
responsible for any of that needed amount. He replied: “All
allocations that the U.S. government has made to Sudan remain
effective, for which we are grateful.”
WFP said it needs an additional $150 million to help people who have
fled to Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic and elsewhere.
“Without funding we either cut the number of people receiving
assistance, or cut the amount of assistance we provide people,”
Hughes said. “That’s already happening.”
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