Drought compounds war as famine risk grows in Darfur and Kordofan

According to an AP report published by PBS on 12 October, the IPC said West Kordofan is going through one of its worst droughts since 2004. Crop growth is poor on 64% of cultivated land in North Darfur and on about half in South Darfur, West Kordofan and South Kordofan. In two camps for displaced people in South Darfur, acute malnutrition among children has crossed the famine threshold. In Nyala, the share of admissions for severe acute malnutrition rose from about 5% to 11% between January and August.

In the IPC's May assessment, more than 40% of the population, about 19.5 million people, faced high levels of acute food insecurity; 135,000 were in Phase 5, the most severe. The IRC said on 13 October that the national harvest is expected to be close to a record low and that more than 5 million people face emergency levels of hunger. The IRC estimates that about 825,000 children under five will suffer severe acute malnutrition. The 12 October alert is not a new famine classification; the IPC issued an exceptional notice because conditions are deteriorating faster than a full analysis can capture.

A WHO note on 12 October says more than 26,000 children were treated at 161 nutrition stabilisation centres in January–August 2026, while only 23% of the agency's $97.7 million appeal for Sudan has been funded. ACLED has recorded at least 150,000 deaths in the war that began in April 2023, and about 13 million people have been displaced. The army said on 2 October it had taken el-Mazroub in North Kordofan; fighting on the Kordofan front overlaps with farmland hit by the drought.