Famine spreads to more towns in Sudan’s Darfur region, hunger experts warn

CAIRO — Famine is spreading in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region and has now engulfed two more towns there, a global hunger monitoring group said Thursday. The announcement comes after the group said last year that residents of El-Fasher, Darfur’s main city, overrun by paramilitary forces after an 18-month siege, were suffering from starvation.

Since April 2023, war has gripped much of Sudan after a power struggle erupted between the East African country’s military and the powerful Rapid Support paramilitary forces. The conflict has triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report on the spread of famine follows an RSF attack on a military hospital in southern Sudan on Thursday that killed 22 people, including the hospital’s medical director and three other medical staff.

The attack, in the town of Kouik in South Kordofan province, also left eight injured, said the Sudanese Doctors Network, a group of medical professionals who monitor the war. It was not immediately clear how many of the victims were civilians.

In a statement, the channel said the attack was “not an isolated incident, but rather part of a series of attacks that have hit South Kordofan” and left “several hospitals unusable.”

The UN estimates that more than 40,000 people have been killed in Sudan’s war, but aid agencies say the real number could be much higher. More than 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

The IPC report says famine has now been detected in the towns of Umm Baru and Kernoi in Darfur. In November, the group said El Fasher – a major town in the region – was suffering from famine, as was the town of Kadugli in Southern Kordofan. At the time, it also said that 20 other regions in Sudan were at risk of famine.

In Umm Baru, nearly 53% of children aged 6 months to almost 5 years were suffering from acute malnutrition, while 32% of children in Kernoi face the same ordeal.

“These alarming rates suggest an increased risk of excess mortality and raise concerns that neighboring areas could experience similar catastrophic conditions,” the report said.

The fall of El-Fasher in October 2025 to the RSF triggered a population exodus to neighboring towns, straining the resources of neighboring communities and increasing rates of food insecurity, the report said.

The IPC has only confirmed famine a few times, most recently in 2025 in northern Gaza, during the war between Israel and Hamas. It also confirmed famine in Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020.

With this report, the total number of famine-stricken areas in Sudan rises to nine. By 2024, famine had struck five other regions of North Darfur as well as the Nuba Mountains region of Sudan.

After the capture of El-Fasher by the RSF, one of the army’s last bastions in Darfur, fighting has recently been concentrated in the Kordofan regions. However, the Sudanese army has since gained ground in Kordofan by breaking the siege of Kadugli and the neighboring town of Dilling.

The IPC report also warns that more people could face extreme hunger in Kordofan, where conflict has disrupted food production and supply chains in besieged towns and isolated areas.

“An immediate and lasting ceasefire is essential to avoid further destitution, famine and deaths in affected areas of Sudan,” argued the Rome-based group.

According to experts, famine is determined in areas where deaths from causes related to malnutrition reach at least two people, or four children under 5 years old, per 10,000 people; at least one person or household in five is seriously lacking food and at risk of starvation; and at least 30% of children under 5 are acutely malnourished based on a weight-for-height measurement – ​​or 15% based on arm circumference.

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Associated Press writer Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo contributed to this report.