Famine spreading in Sudan's Darfur, warn UN-backed experts

Labourers reconstruct a historical building in Suakin on January 22, 2026. [AFP]

Famine is spreading in Sudan's western Darfur, UN-backed experts warned on Thursday, after the paramilitary takeover of the region's main city El-Fasher triggered mass displacement into surrounding communities.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has killed tens of thousands, displaced nearly 11 million and driven multiple regions into famine and hunger.

In an alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), global food security experts said that "famine thresholds for acute malnutrition have now been surpassed" in North Darfur's contested areas of Um Baru and Kernoi, near the border with Chad.

They added that the spread of famine came as the fall of North Darfur capital El-Fasher led to "massive displacement of residents and displaced persons into surrounding areas of North Darfur".

El-Fasher, long the Sudanese army's final stronghold in western Darfur, fell to the RSF last October after 18 months of bombardment and starvation.

Thursday's alert, based on data available up to February, comes nearly three months after the IPC confirmed famine conditions in El-Fasher and Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the east.

Kadugli endured a punishing RSF siege for much of the country's nearly three-year conflict before the army lifted the blockade this week.

Nearby Dilling, where the army also broke an RSF siege earlier this month, is believed to be experiencing similar famine conditions though lack of access and ongoing insecurity prevented a formal declaration.

The IPC said that 20 more areas in Sudan's Darfur and neighbouring Kordofan were at risk of famine.

Fighting between the army and the RSF in Kordofan -- now a key battleground -- has displaced about 88,000 people since October, the latest UN figures show.

The fall of El-Fasher -- which was accompanied by reports of mass killings, rape and abductions -- also pushed at least 127,000 people to flee to nearby towns, according to the same data.

"The movement of tens of thousands of people facing hunger and malnutrition into already fragile areas of North Darfur is likely to sharply increase the number of people facing catastrophic food insecurity," the IPC experts said.

Across Sudan, more than 21 million people -- almost half of the population -- are now facing acute food insecurity, with two-thirds of the population in urgent need of assistance, according to the UN.

The conflict, nearing the three-year mark, has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the north, east and centre and the RSF dominating Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.