The IPC Famine Review Committee says famine is already present in five areas of Darfur and South Kordofan in Sudan, and warns that five more areas could fall into famine conditions by May 2025. The assessment adds to mounting alarm over one of the world’s worst hunger crises, with the war in Sudan continuing to cut off food, aid and basic services.
The report says more than 600,000 people are facing hunger and more than 24.5 million need emergency food assistance. That is close to half the country’s population. The warning comes as fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces has devastated supply lines and made it harder to reach people in need.
The excerpt from the report says the food crisis is spreading across Sudan. The committee is part of the IPC system used by the United Nations and other agencies to classify acute food insecurity. Its findings carry weight because they are used to guide humanitarian response and international reporting.
The BBC’s report quoted Dervla Cleary, an official with the UN food and agriculture system, urging an immediate halt to the violence so aid could reach those trapped by the conflict. Her point was blunt: without safe access, food, water, health care and nutrition support cannot get through to the people who need them.
Sudan’s government rejected the findings, calling them an attack on national sovereignty. That reaction is consistent with the politics of the war, in which both sides accuse the other of obstructing relief and manipulating the humanitarian picture.
The practical consequences are severe. Where famine conditions have been identified, people are already at risk of death from starvation and disease. The IPC warning that more areas may cross that threshold by May 2025 suggests that the situation is not stabilising; it is deteriorating.
The wider context is the civil war that erupted two years ago, which has displaced millions and fragmented authority across the country. Aid agencies have struggled to reach large parts of Darfur and Kordofan, where violence, roadblocks and insecurity have made normal supply chains impossible.
Even in a region with chronic food insecurity, the scale in Sudan stands out. The report says the country’s crisis is being driven not by a single poor harvest or weather event, but by warfare, collapse of access and the deliberate destruction of logistics that humanitarian operations depend on.
For the international response, the IPC’s warning should sharpen attention on access rather than rhetoric. The headline figure is famine, but the underlying problem is route access: if convoys cannot move, warehouses cannot fill and local markets cannot function, the number of hungry people will keep rising.
The committee’s findings make clear that Sudan is no longer dealing with a risk of famine in isolated pockets. It is confronting a widening emergency that could push more areas into famine over the coming months if the war continues without a significant change in access or security.
