World Food Programme warns that efforts to ramp up food aid to famine-impacted Sudan being impeded

Today, intensified fighting and the arbitrary obstruction of humanitarian convoys are hindering the fast and consistent movement of desperately needed aid.

Since launching a large-scale surge of food aid in late 2024, WFP has pushed into hard-to-reach areas, including Zamzam Camp in North Darfur, south Khartoum, and Gebaish in West Kordofan. In January, WFP even reached Wad Madani in Gezira State after the city became safe enough to get trucks of food and nutrition supplies through. Over 2.5 million people per month received much-needed food and nutrition assistance in the last quarter of 2024, including many for the first time, since the conflict began. 

“We have made significant breakthroughs in getting aid deliveries to hard-to-reach areas in the last three months, but these cannot be one-off events,” said Alex Marianelli, acting Country Director for Sudan. “We urgently need to get a constant flow of aid to families in the hardest hit locations, which have also been the most difficult to reach.” 

A convoy headed to areas already in famine, or at-risk of famine, in Darfur, took three times longer to reach its destination due to interferences. After crossing the Adre border in mid-December, local officials from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) held-back some 40 humanitarian trucks for nearly three weeks, requiring new clearances and inspections. As a result, the WFP-led convoy had to be redirected to another famine-risk area in the Darfur region. On arrival, the RSF held the trucks again and made additional demands. Finally, the convoy finally reached its destination earlier this week, a full six weeks after its departure, for a journey that would normally take a maximum of two weeks.

Meanwhile, a national liquidity crisis has led to widespread cash shortages. WFP cash and in-kind food distributions for over 4 million people have been delayed for over one month due to a lack of sufficient bank notes to help pay porters to load trucks. Recent efforts by Sudan’s Central Bank and Ministry of Finance to ease the crisis, and increase cash availability, has meant that WFP’s operations can gradually resume.

WFP calls on all parties on the ground in Sudan to remove all unnecessary barriers and obstacles that are preventing a full-scale humanitarian response to Sudan’s growing hunger crisis. The neutrality and independence of aid workers and humanitarian work must be respected. The safe passage of humanitarian assistance to hard-to-reach, famine-struck areas must be guaranteed.

Sudan continues to face a catastrophic humanitarian situation with approximately 24.6 million people – nearly half of Sudan's population – facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3+). Twenty-seven locations across Sudan are either in famine or at risk of famine, while more than one-third of children in the hardest hit regions are acutely malnourished, well above the threshold for a famine declaration.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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