Sudan Conflict Enters Third Year: More than 600,000 people are in a 'catastrophic' situation

• Over 600,000 people face catastrophic hunger (IPC 5) and are at imminent risk of death without food aid. In total, over 24 million people are in IPC 3 and above.
• Humanitarian assistance participants' targets slashed from 20.9 million to 17.3 million due to funding shortfalls in the reprioritised 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP)
• The public health threat posed by the outbreak of cholera requires agent action by humanitarian actors to cushion vulnerable communities
• World Vision calls for urgent funding, safe access, and protection of civilians as unprecedented hunger and gender-based violence push millions to the brink of survival.

April 11th, 2025 — As Sudan enters its third year of devastating conflict, international aid agency, World Vision has warned that unprecedented hunger is threatening to kill 600,000 people within days or weeks unless urgent action is taken. 

More than 30 million people across Sudan — over half the population — now need humanitarian assistance, with escalating hunger, sexual violence, and mental health needs creating one of the world’s most severe — and most neglected — humanitarian emergencies. With the forced displacement of nearly 15 million people Sudan remains the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.

“Sudan is now facing a perfect storm of hunger, violence, and trauma,” said Simon Mane, World Vision Sudan National Director. “Children are facing acute malnutrition, families are being torn apart, cholera cases are rising in White Nile putting 292,000 children at risk — yet the world remains largely silent. There is simply not enough aid to feed the vulnerable people. 30 million people need humanitarian assistance, that’s 3 in every 5 people living in Sudan.   Only 6.3 per cent of the original US$4.2 billion needed to support those in desperate need this year has come in. Funding cuts have now reduced the response appeal ask to $2.4 billion. The cuts, unless reversed, will cost children's lives and mean many millions go without food and vital services and will face death and deprivation."

While the recent recapture of parts of Khartoum offers a new opportunity to scale up humanitarian operations, World Vision is warning that unless this moment is seized, acute food insecurity could spread rapidly across multiple regions. On top of that, the amount of people to be targeted with aid support in Sudan has been slashed from 20.9 million to 17.3 million, due to funding shortfalls in the reprioritised 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP).

“We need to do everything we can to get life-saving aid to children who are on the brink of death from acute food insecurity. The fact that over 600,000 people are affected is terrifying. If we were to say that more than 990 planes of the world’s largest passenger planes could crash within weeks, killing the same amount of people, but it could be stopped, then surely the international community would do everything in its power to make that happen. These are preventable deaths – many are children, but not enough is being done to save their lives. Without immediate action, we are staring down an acute food insecurity crisis that could rival the worst in modern history,” said Mane. 

A recent report by World Vision’s Unprecedented revealed the devastating impact conflict is having on civilians in the country.  The report found that up to 65% of women in Sudan may now be facing sexual violence, based on patterns seen in similar conflict zones while 6.1 million people are at risk of developing mental health disorders due to the trauma of conflict, hunger, and displacement. A staggering 15.7 million children and adults face heightened risk of mental illness — a crisis that will endure long after the fighting stops.

“Women and girls in Sudan are facing an unimaginable nightmare,” said Phiona Koyiet, World Vision’s Senior Technical Advisor on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support. “Sexual violence is being used on women, while children are enduring levels of trauma that will scar a generation. While the world focuses on other important crises around the world, I fear that Sudan is being forgotten. We must not let this continue to happen,” she said.

As Sudan marks two years of conflict, World Vision is calling on the international community to prioritise funding for food, nutrition, protection, mental health services, education in emergencies, resilience building and peacebuilding. “Thousands of lives will be affected in coming period if the international community do not intervene. We also need full and safe humanitarian access across conflict lines so we can get essential aid to where it is needed most,” said Mr Mane.

For more information, please contact:

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organisation dedicated to working with children, families and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice.  World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. 

For more information, please visit www.wvi.org/sudan