UNITED NATIONS, Jan 8 (IPS) – As the civil war rages in Sudan, the humanitarian crisis across the country continues to worsen. Civilian casualties and displacement have risen sharply in the past few months due to armed conflict. Famine is also looming in parts of the country most affected by conflict, with strict restrictions impeding the provision of humanitarian aid. Despite numerous calls from the international community for a cessation of hostilities, relief efforts are severely underfunded.
In 2025, humanitarian organizations plan to support about 21 million people, about half of Sudan’s population. However, this number is expected to increase further due to the escalation in armed hostilities recorded in December 2024. The ongoing siege in Sudan’s capital El Fasher has killed 782 people and injured 1,143 from at least May 2024 to December 2024, according to a report by the United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The Zamzam refugee camp, the country’s largest refuge for internally displaced people, came under heavy shelling in the last week of 2024, according to Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Shelling in western Darfur has killed about 80 people and injured 400. Civilians and humanitarian aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), have attributed these casualties to hostilities carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Nathaniel Raymond, director of the Yale University Humanitarian Studies Institute, described the current situation in Zamzam camp as a ‘kill box.’ As the war intensifies, Sudanese refugees are forced into dangerous areas of the RSF or into barren deserts where they face the risk of starvation. “We can see people camping under trees on the side of the road from space. They are coming out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Raymond said. Many of them have serious injuries or are immunocompromised, he added.
On January 6, 2025, the UN Security Council warned that famine would spread across Sudan unless humanitarian organizations intervene effectively soon. According to Wosornu, famine exists in five districts, including the Zamzam, Al Salam and Abu Shouk camps, and the western Nuba Mountains region.
Five additional districts, including Um Kadada and El Fasher, and 17 other high-risk areas could face severe famine-like conditions by mid-2025, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Category (IPC). Women, children and the elderly are expected to be disproportionately affected.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Director Beth Bechdol, mass famine is a direct result of prolonged war, forced migration and limited humanitarian access. The IPC report also states that “only an immediate cessation of hostilities can prevent the crisis from worsening.”
It is important for humanitarian organizations to have unimpeded access to critically endangered areas in Sudan. The Adre border crossing, which connects Chad directly to the hardest-hit areas in Sudan, has suffered numerous delays and blockages in aid. According to Wosornu, “key areas of South Kordofan are virtually cut off from external assistance” and “visas for humanitarian workers are not being granted quickly enough.”
The start of 2025 marks a major turning point in the Sudan crisis. Because we must act now to ensure stability for millions of Sudanese people. Bechdol says “immediate and unhindered” humanitarian access is urgently needed if humanitarian organizations are now to be able to provide “multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance.”
The 2025 Humanitarian Needs Response Plan seeks approximately $4.2 billion to provide life-saving assistance to the 21 million Sudanese civilians struggling to survive. Funding from this plan will help restore basic services such as access to food, water and shelter, as well as protective services. “The risk of famine and its spread has been on our collective conscience since August, and now not only are people dying of hunger, but health systems, livelihoods and social structures are collapsing,” warns Bechdol.
IPS UN Secretariat Report
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau.
Follow the IPS News UN Secretariat on Instagram
© Interpress Services (2025) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
