SITUATION OVERVIEW

Half the population of Sudan faces acute hunger as 755,000 face famine-like conditions.

About 25.6 million people – over half of the population of Sudan – face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between June and September 2024, coinciding with the lean season, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Food Insecurity Snapshot. This is an increase of 45 per cent – up from 17.7 million – since the last IPC update in December 2023. Of these, 8.5 million are experiencing emergency levels of hunger and about 755,000 people on the brink of famine – during the same period in ten states, including Greater Darfur (all five states), South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazirah, and Khartoum.

Latest analysis shows that the risk of famine is high in 14 areas in Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and some hotspots in Khartoum, if the conflict escalates, humanitarian access is restricted, and families are unable to engage in farming and other economic activities. The situation is worsened by the highly dysfunctional healthcare services, water contamination, and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions driving a deadly combination of hunger, malnutrition, and disease.

To address these urgent needs and to stave off famine more funding is required now. To scale up in time, humanitarians need urgent additional resources for the response. Despite the urgency of the situation, the 2024 Sudan Response Plan is just a third-funded by the end of July.

Sudan reaches another grim milestone as 10.6 million people are now internally displaced

An estimated 10.7 million people (2.1 million families) are now internally displaced in Sudan, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Mechanism (DTM) reported in its Sudan Mobility Update No 4 on 23 July. The majority of those internally displaced – 55 per cent – are children under the age of 18 years and they have endured more than a year of separation, human rights violations, trauma, violence, and lack of access to basic services. The overall number of internally displaced people includes an estimated 7.9 million people who fled their homes since the start of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023. About 2.1 million people crossed borders into neighbouring countries since 15 April 2023, including to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Ethiopia, Libya, and Uganda. Moreover, 27 per cent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were initially displaced prior to the onset of conflict were displaced again after 15 April 2023.

The humanitarian situation in Sudan makes the country one of the world’s largest displacement, food security and children’s crisis. Overall, more than 20 per cent of the population in Sudan has fled their home due to the ongoing war, either internally or across borders. The country now hosts approximately 14 per cent of the global IDP caseload, that is approximately 1 in 7 IDPs worldwide are Sudanese, according to IOM DTM. Food is the highest priority among IDP families as over 97 per cent of IDPs across Sudan were hosted in localities with high levels of acute food insecurity or worse (IPC Level 3+). An estimated 89 per cent of displaced families are unable to afford their daily food requirements.

Recent clashes displace 151,000 people in Sennar State

Escalation of conflict in Sennar State displaced about 151,750 people (about 30,350 families) since 24 June, according to the IOM DTM reported on 11 July. The affected people were displaced to other locations in Sennar and to other states in Sudan (Gedaref, Kassala, Blue Nile, White Nile, River Nile and Red Sea), and across the border to South Sudan. Humanitarian partners in Blue Nile, Gedaref and Kassala states report that IDPs from Sennar continue to arrive seeking safety, shelter, and humanitarian assistance. Sennar, Sinja, and Ad Dinder localities were already hosting about 286,000 displaced people before the recent escalation in clashes, the majority of whom had already been displaced from Khartoum or Aj Jazirah. Therefore, people displaced from Sennar may be experiencing secondary or tertiary displacement. The displacement from Sennar is taking place at a time when the state governments in Kassala, Gedaref, and Red Sea are reopening schools and relocating IDPs from classrooms/learning rooms to other school buildings and gathering sites. It is also the start of the rainy season, and poor living and sanitation conditions at IDP sites could lead to disease outbreaks.

MSF withdraws team from hospital in Khartoum

On 10 July, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced it had evacuated its team from the Turkish Hospital, a medical facility in an RSF-controlled area in Khartoum, following a series of violent incidents endangering staff. The situation at the hospital has become untenable, MSF said in a statement, adding that multiple violent incidents had taken place inside and outside the premises over the past 12 months, and the lives of MSF staff had been repeatedly threatened. Most recently, on the nights of 17 and 18 June, dozens of wounded combatants were brought to the Turkish Hospital, and MSF team was aggressively woken up as Kalashnikovs were fired into their bedrooms. MSF condemned the attacks calling this type of violence is unacceptable. They also reiterated that hospitals and health facilities should be protected and respected by the warring parties as sanctuaries for the sick and wounded where health workers can safely deliver medical care. Since the start of the conflict, 73 attacks on health care facilities were recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO) Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA). These attacks resulted in 53 deaths and about 100 injuries.

Worrying spike in gender-based violence

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) raised concerns about the escalation of cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and the decrease in access to healthcare services, especially sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Sudan. UNFPA reports that 6.7 million people are at risk of gender-based violence (GBV) and 3.5 million women and girls of reproductive age need reproductive health care services. Kidnapping, forced marriage, intimate partner violence, conflict-related sexual violence, and harmful practices such as child marriage, continue to be reported, especially in Aj Jazirah State and the Darfur region. Meanwhile, humanitarian access is compromised in conflict zones, impacting medical care, maternal health, and the supply of menstrual hygiene products. With persistent food insecurity among displaced families, particularly female-headed households, widows, adolescent girls, and people with disabilities, the adoption of negative coping mechanisms for survival is on the rise. In a food-insecure environment, the risk of GBV increases, with women and girls often lacking the financial resources to access sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and GBV services, prioritizing food over their health.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that numerous incidents of conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated by parties to the conflict, but also resulting from the escalation of inter-communal violence coupled with the collapse of law and order, continue to be reported by women and girls in Sudan and neighbouring countries. Reports of sexual exploitation and abuse and trafficking in person have also increased. However, due to limited access to services as well as fear of retaliation and stigma, under-reporting of GBV incidents remains high. The trend emerging from analysis shows that 56 per cent of GBV incidents reported (by Sudanese refugees or refugee returnees) in Ethiopia and South Sudan occurred prior to displacement or during their flight.

HUMANITARIAN NEEDS & RESPONSE

Despite access challenges and funding gaps, 128 humanitarian partners reached more than 7.1 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance between January 2024 and the end of May, according to the latest Sudan Humanitarian Response Dashboard. Humanitarians are pushing ahead with a full-scale plan to stave off famine – but the window for action is closing. It is critical that donors provide the funds needed to enable humanitarians to urgently get cash to families to buy food during the lean season; scale up their operational presence in areas where hunger is most acute, unhindered by insecurity; move supplies to areas with higher needs. In areas where aid has reached people, the latest IPC analysis has shown that food security for some families will slightly improve during the harvest season (October 2024 – February 2025) due to food availability from local production.

Response to displacement from Sennar State

Humanitarians have scaled up response to address the needs of people displaced from Sennar in Gedaref, Kassala and Blue Nile states. About 43,000 IDPs from Sennar in Blue Nile and Kassala states have received emergency food assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP has also pre-positioned more than 2,200 metric tons of supplies to provide immediate food assistance to newly displaced families. In Gedaref, humanitarians report that the most pressing needs include food, emergency shelter, NFIs, emergency latrines and a protection desk. At Al Sug Al Shaabi gathering site, the local charity organizations Hiyad and the Zakat charity are distributing hot meals to the new IDPs arriving from Sennar State. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and a local NGO are providing water assistance, but more aid is required to meet increasing needs. Meanwhile, at the new reception centre at Minah Al Berih, UNICEF has distributed tarpaulins, installed water bladders, and is in the process of setting up latrines and starting child protection activities. Local charity organizations and residents have been distributing hot meals to the displaced people. The State Ministry of Health (SMoH) has been registering the new arrivals and Save the Children (SC) has identified a location for a mobile health clinic.

In Kassala, humanitarians are providing life-saving assistance at the temporary gathering site in Alsinaiya School. IOM is also providing health and referral services through a mobile clinic at the temporary reception centre. UNHCR has established four semi-permanent shelters at the reception centre; distributed clothes and non-food items (NFI) kits to the new arrivals; and supported the communal kitchen with utensils. Six communal shelters have been allocated and WFP has provided two rub halls. WFP is also supporting the kitchen with food items, enough for 15,000 people. UNICEF and the charity organization, Sadagaat, are trucking in water and have rehabilitated the water supply connection, nine latrines, five showers, and are desludging septic tanks. About 90 additional latrines are needed to cope with the influx of displaced people. UNICEF has also established a temporary primary healthcare clinic (PHC) at the reception centre that provides medical consultations, laboratory services, psychosocial support and ambulance services in case of referrals. In addition, youth initiatives set up temporary mobile clinics to deal with the chronic disease. Nutrition services are being provided at an outpatient therapeutic feeding program (OTP) in the reception centre and UNHCR—in collaboration with the national NGO JASMAR—has established a protection help desk at the reception centre.

In Blue Nile, WFP food distributions to newly arrived IDPs from Sinja in Ed Damazine are ongoing. Between 1 and 7 July, WFP and its partners distributed food assistance to about 18,600 displaced people (3,746 households) from Sennar in Ed Damazine and Ar Rusayris. UNICEF is providing WASH and nutrition services and is distributing dignity kits. WHO is providing health and nutrition services, while ADRA is providing multi-purpose cash assistance and WASH services. UNHCR distributed NFI and dignity kits to about 6,000 IDPs (1,200 families) from Sinja in Ed Damazine and Ar Rusayris and with the support of its national partner continued providing protection services.

HUMANITARIAN ACCESS

A cross-border mission from Chad to Central Darfur finds thousands stranded

A UN cross-border inter-agency mission to Central Darfur State that started on 10 July returned from the Jebel Marra area to Zalingei and arrived in El Geneina, West Darfur on 21 July. On 22 July, the mission team crossed back into Chad via Tina border in North Darfur, Sudan. The preliminary findings of the mission reveal that there are tens of thousands of IDPs in Nertiti, Golo, Debra Neira, Sabanga and Rokero areas in Central Darfur. The team reports that the displaced families are crowded in sites and camps, sometimes between 70 and 80 people sleeping in one classroom, while others are staying in makeshift shelters or in the open. The IDPs arrived from different areas across the country, including Sennar, Khartoum and all Darfur state capitals. Humanitarian partners are providing assistance, but limited resources are constraining their ability to meet the urgent needs.

Deaths due to malnutrition-related medical complications occur increasingly regularly, according to Toby Harward, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Darfur, who is leading the mission. In recent weeks, UN agencies in Sudan have significantly increased humanitarian assistance crossing from Chad to Sudan. However, aid organisations are now facing new logistical challenges as heavy rains threaten to render the Tine border crossing impassable, with an urgent need for alternative access routes.

Rains cut-off key access routes; displace thousands of people

The onset of the rainy season in various parts of the country started to affect logistics, with many areas cut off due to heavy rains and flooding. In parts of Darfur, humanitarian agencies have had to postpone the distribution of humanitarian assistance until late August due to wadis (dried water streams that turn into rivers) cutting off physical access to affected areas. In Kassala, more than 10,000 people, including thousands of newly arrived IDPs from Sennar, have been directly affected by heavy rains and floods.

HUMANITARIAN FUNDING OVERVIEW

The 2024 Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) requires US$2.7 billion to provide life-saving multi-cluster and protection assistance to 14.7 million people across Sudan. As of 29 July 2024, the appeal is 31.9 per cent funded, with $859.3 million received, according to the Financial Tracking Service.

For the PDF version: Sudan Humanitarian Update, 29 July 2024