Sudan is facing one of the most severe humanitarian crises in its recent history, and the international organizations trying to respond are now running critically short of resources. According to the United Nations, the country’s aid system could break down within weeks unless additional funding arrives soon.
The civil conflict that has torn the country apart since 2023 has driven 8.6 million people from their homes within Sudan’s own borders. At the same time, 19.5 million people are currently experiencing crisis-level food insecurity, a situation made worse by an El Niño-driven drought and by logistical disruptions that are hampering the delivery of relief supplies. Journeys that once took six hours now require up to three days on the road.
The World Food Programme, which assists between four and five million people every month, currently has only a third of the funding it needs to operate normally. Its acting director, Carl Skau, has warned that Sudan’s crisis « by far does not get the attention it deserves » and that the organization may be forced to scale back its operations significantly for lack of resources. The International Organization for Migration, meanwhile, says it needs $15 million just to keep its logistics pipeline running at minimum capacity for the next twelve months. Its director general, Amy Pope, sounded an equally urgent alarm, saying the entire humanitarian system could collapse if nothing is done immediately.
Stocks of shelter materials, sanitation supplies and emergency relief items are expected to run out by the end of September. Without fresh funding, several warehouses could shut down by December, cutting off millions of Sudanese from their last safety net. Since July 2023, the joint pipeline set up by UN agencies has still managed to reach 2.84 million people, an effort that humanitarian officials now say is threatened as much by international indifference as by the lack of resources.