Sudan

Aid teams working to help the millions of people uprooted by the ongoing war in Sudan appealed for more international assistance on Friday amid desperate funding shortages, empty warehouses, and overwhelming needs. A staggering 15.4 million people urgently need shelter across the country, where the war that erupted in April 2023 between former allies-turned-rivals is deepening the suffering of civilians.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed alarm on Monday regarding the ongoing drone attacks on critical energy infrastructure in Sudan. These attacks have caused widespread power outages and disrupted essential services across several states. On Monday, a series of drone strikes hit two power stations in Kassala State and an electricity substation in Merowe, a city in Northern State, resulting in large-scale blackouts.

Talks to stop the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the resulting humanitarian crisis continued Wednesday in Geneva, where nearly two dozen countries met to discuss a path to a ceasefire and a transition to a peaceful governance system that represents all Sudanese people. Although international engagement on Sudan is gaining momentum, a clear commitment from the warring parties to end the fighting is still lacking.

After almost two decades of progress, global hunger is rising again, driven by wars, climate shocks, and economic crises, according to the 2026 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released on Wednesday. The report reveals that hunger has worsened in 32 countries and that 57 countries are on track to miss even low targets for hunger by 2030.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an alert on Monday, warning of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions. The risk of famine is growing due to conflict, displacement, drought, and the critical underfunding of humanitarian response efforts. New evidence published by the IPC points to a rapid rise in acute malnutrition across much of Darfur, raising further concerns about the survival of children and other vulnerable groups.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed alarm on Monday over the continued deadly violence in Sudan, including attacks against humanitarian operations, alongside rising displacement and worsening food insecurity. Meanwhile, a coalition of international aid organizations has called for urgent protection of the nation's upcoming harvest, as Sudan enters a critical period to prevent another catastrophic hunger crisis.

The United Nations allocated US$160 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) on Friday to support life-saving assistance in 12 of the world’s most underfunded humanitarian crises, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This allocation is part of a broader effort to assist 87 million people facing the most severe humanitarian crises this year.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official issued an urgent call to the international community on Monday, demanding swift diplomatic intervention and increased financial commitments to bridge the widening gap in life-saving aid for the millions of people desperately in need. He also urged stronger diplomacy to defend international humanitarian law.

With severe shelter shortages and heightened risks from ongoing fighting and heavy rains continuing to plague hundreds of thousands of displaced people across Sudan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Monday that Sudan’s emergency relief supply via the Common Humanitarian Pipeline could collapse within weeks.  This warning comes amid ongoing drone strikes and other hostilities that endanger civilians and force them from their homes in the regions of Darfur, Kordofan, as well as Blue Nile State.

Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, delivered a sobering message to the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on Monday. He described the current global situation as an "age of extremes," characterized by intensifying warfare, "painful polarization," climate instability, and the swift and often unregulated growth of artificial intelligence.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released a new report on Thursday warning that foreign recruitment and external support networks are fueling the war in Sudan, strengthening the military capabilities of the country’s warring parties and enabling increasingly sophisticated military operations with devastating consequences for civilians.

Critical food systems — and the lives and livelihoods they sustain — are under attack across the world, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres reminded the Security Council on Tuesday. He urged the UN’s most powerful body to end the cycle of conflict and hunger by taking action "when the warning lights are flashing" — from Gaza and Haiti to Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, and beyond.

The United Nations’ relief chief issued a scathing rebuke to the international community on Monday, warning that the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan is being fueled by a global "lack of action" despite a clear understanding of the scale of the crisis. An unprecedented 33.7 million people, including more than 20 million children, currently require assistance and protection as a result of the war, which began more than three years ago.

2025 set another grim record for violence against aid workers, with 907 killed, injured, or kidnapped, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today on World Humanitarian Day. Although the death toll decreased slightly to 350 last year, it was the second-highest annual toll ever recorded, and the overall level of violence did not ease. 322 aid workers were injured in attacks, and 235 were kidnapped.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that ongoing conflict and displacement, coupled with severe funding shortages, are exacerbating humanitarian needs across Sudan. In North Kordofan State, insecurity around the city of El Obeid continues to endanger civilians, forcing them to flee and increasing humanitarian needs.

As the war intensifies in the town of El Obeid in Sudan’s North Kordofan State, filling a jerrycan with water has become extremely dangerous for women and girls. During the day, drones attack water points, and at night, women who venture out to fill a bucket risk being raped. On Friday, UN Women warned of this dual terror, which has made accessing water a deadly gamble, while access to food, healthcare, and other essential services is severely limited, particularly in displacement sites.

United Nations humanitarian workers in war-torn Sudan on Friday highlighted the rapidly growing needs of the more than 100,000 displaced people sheltering in the city of El Obeid. The capital of North Kordofan State is home to large numbers of displaced people and is also a critical logistics hub for the humanitarian response across the wider Kordofan region, which supports relief efforts in areas of acute need, including the cities of Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan State.

The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has released a new report on Wednesday which details the brutal mass killings, systematic abductions of women and girls, and mass gang rapes carried out by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. The report provides further harrowing evidence that the atrocities committed by warring parties in the North African nation constitute distinct markers of genocide.

The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State, according to a major new report released Wednesday by Amnesty International. The human rights organization is now calling for an immediate ceasefire and the urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians.

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) issued a report on Tuesday that documents widespread conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan since hostilities began in April 2023, and its profound long-term impact on victims, families, and communities. The report finds that sexual violence has accompanied the geographic spread of the conflict and widespread displacement, consistently being used as a tactic to terrorize and traumatize the civilian population.

Following reports of a significant troop build-up by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied forces around the town of El Obeid in Sudan, as well as intensified drone strikes and artillery shelling, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued a stark warning on Thursday that an imminent offensive could result in the commission of further serious international crimes, further deepening the already catastrophic impact on the civilian population.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned Wednesday that acute food insecurity will worsen for millions in 13 countries deemed "hunger hotspots" between June and November 2026. The latest early warning report identifies Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, and Gaza as the world's most critical hunger hotspots in terms of hunger severity and magnitude.

A new report released on Thursday by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reveals that, despite remaining alarmingly high, global forced displacement has decreased for the first time in a decade. At the end of 2025, one in every 70 people—or 1.4 percent of the world’s population—were forcibly displaced due to conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events that seriously disturbed public order.

According to a new report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) released Thursday, Sudan is not only the world’s largest displacement crisis, but also the most neglected. The non-governmental organization (NGO) warns that neglected crises are particularly affected by brutal cuts to humanitarian funding by donors such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday that approximately 19.5 million people — two out of every five in Sudan — are currently experiencing crisis-level acute hunger or worse nationwide. Sudan is also facing a severe nutrition crisis, with an estimated 825,000 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Twenty years after the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region first sparked global outrage, children in the region are once again trapped in a catastrophic cycle of violence, hunger, and displacement — but this time, the world is failing to take notice, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday. The UN agency warns that, while the horrors of 2005 are repeating, the scale of the crisis is far greater now, and international attention is dangerously lacking.

Acute food insecurity and malnutrition levels remain alarmingly high and deeply entrenched across the world, with crises increasingly concentrated in a core group of countries, according to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), which was released on Friday. The 2026 edition of the GRFC shows that acute hunger has doubled over the past decade, with two famines being declared last year — the first time this has happened in the report's ten-year history.

Three years of war in Sudan have created the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. Tens of thousands of children, women and men have been killed, starved, and maimed. With no signs of the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan and its regional impacts abating, United Nations leaders expressed alarm on Wednesday at the insufficient funding and diplomatic attention being given to the conflict and its consequences.

Two leading United Nations agencies are warning that more than a million Sudanese refugees in Chad face immediate and life-threatening cuts to food, water, shelter, protection, and health care as the conflict in neighboring Sudan approaches the three-year mark. Earlier this week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that they will drastically scale back essential assistance to refugees in Chad unless the US$428 million funding gap is filled.

At a time when humanitarian needs are rising and funding is falling rapidly, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations relief chief and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has allocated US$48 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS). This funding will enable UNHAS to continue operating in eight crisis-stricken countries.

Ahead of the third anniversary of the start of the devastating war in Sudan, humanitarian organizations are warning that essential services and survival-critical systems are collapsing. As the conflict approaches this grim milestone, they are drawing particular attention to the needs of those displaced by the war, both within the country and across borders, as well as to the urgent needs of children and women, who are disproportionately impacted by the ongoing emergency.

The trauma of mass displacement and humanitarian supply chain disruptions throughout the world are among the devastating impacts of the war in Iran and the wider Middle East, UN humanitarian officials warned on Tuesday. As the conflict shows no signs of easing, the breakdown of supply networks is worsening global hunger, putting up to 45 million additional people at risk and pushing already vulnerable communities closer to catastrophe.

A hospital in war-torn Sudan has reportedly been attacked, killing at least 64 people and marking the latest in a series of assaults on health facilities. Late Friday, the Al Deain Teaching Hospital in Al Deain, the capital of East Darfur State, was struck, leaving scores of civilians dead, including 13 children, two nurses, a doctor, and multiple patients. The latest attack also injured 89 people, including eight health care workers.

At a time of severe cuts to the global body’s humanitarian work in emergencies and “soaring” needs, the UN’s relief chief has condemned the “$1 billion-a-day” cost of the war roiling Iran and the wider Middle East. On Wednesday in Geneva, he spoke about his efforts to reach 87 million people with life-saving aid, for which US$23 billion is urgently needed.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed deep concern on Thursday regarding the escalating violence in Sudan’s Kordofan region. Escalating fighting has killed and injured civilians, destroyed homes and hospitals, and damaged other civilian infrastructure, further constraining humanitarian access.

Delegates from over 120 countries gathered in Geneva on Monday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), amidst escalating global instability and conflict. Recognizing the dizzying geopolitical uncertainty marked by ongoing conflict and war in Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, and beyond, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the HRC members to hold the line on human rights, which he warned were under a "full-scale attack."

A joint United Nations convoy led by the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has reached Dilling and Kadugli, two cities in Sudan’s South Kordofan State, carrying life-saving supplies for over 130,000 people. This 26-truck convoy marks the first major delivery of aid to the area in three months, as high levels of insecurity along the route had previously prevented such deliveries.

As the brutal war in Sudan shows no signs of ending after nearly three years of raging conflict, UN human rights chief Volker Türk called on the international community on Monday to intervene immediately and stop mass killings and other flagrant war crimes against civilians. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, UN aid agencies warned that famine and malnutrition continue to spread across Sudan, with children wasting away while the world looks away.

The United Nations, its humanitarian partners, and the Chadian government launched the 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in N'Djamena, Chad's capital, on Friday, with the goal of supporting millions of people across the country. The plan requests US$986 million, including $540 million for refugees, to assist 3.4 million of the most vulnerable people in Chad.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched its 2026 Global Health Emergency Appeal on Tuesday to ensure that millions of people living in humanitarian crises and conflicts have access to healthcare. The appeal seeks nearly US$1 billion to respond to 36 emergencies worldwide, including the world’s most severe crises, ranging from sudden-onset to protracted crises where health needs are critical.

South Kordofan State is now the epicenter of the war in Sudan, which has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, warned the international humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Monday. Civilians in this part of southern Sudan face intensified hostilities and a nearly total blockade of humanitarian supplies after a year of starvation and bombardment, said NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland at the end of his visit to South Kordofan.

Aid agencies marked 1,000 days of war in Sudan on Friday, issuing a stark reminder that the conflict has caused the world's worst hunger crisis and largest emergency of forced displacement. Every day, civilians have been paying "the price for a war they did not choose," said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has expressed extreme concern over the impact of escalating violence on civilians in Sudan, especially in Kordofan and North Darfur. On Friday, OCHA reported that the humanitarian situation in the besieged towns of Dilling and Kadugli in South Kordofan has continued to deteriorate.

Since the last attack on El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur State at the end of October, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that tens of thousands of refugees and returnees have crossed into neighboring Chad. The Saharan nation is currently hosting approximately 903,000 Sudanese refugees who escaped the conflict that began in Sudan in April 2023.

As the flames of war continue to engulf Sudan, the United Nations Security Council was urged Monday to prevent the horrors of this conflict from recurring and to stop those enabling the violence from spreading instability further across the region. Escalating violence in Sudan is placing civilians at extreme risk and triggering new waves of displacement, particularly in the Kordofan region.

Deep concerns persist for the tens of thousands of people believed to be trapped in the town of El Fasher, located in the western Darfur region of Sudan. However, United Nations aid agencies believe they may soon gain access to the embattled city, where famine has been confirmed. Meanwhile, in South Kordofan State, drone strikes in and around the state capital, Kadugli, and the town of Dilling, point to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.

The United Nations and its aid partners launched their 2026 global humanitarian appeal on Monday to raise a total of US$33 billion to support 135 million people in need through 23 country operations and six plans for refugees and migrants. The appeal aims to save millions of lives in some of the world's most crisis-stricken regions, including those affected by war, hunger, climate disasters, earthquakes, and epidemics.