WFP Director: ‘Do not let Sudan become a forgotten emergency’

“Three years of war in Sudan is three years too many,” laments Ross Smith, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response on the UN World Food Program (WFP). Speaking at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, Smith highlighted that this week marks three years since civil conflict erupted in Sudan.

‘We are two years into a famine in parts of the country – this is unacceptable in this day in age’

“Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian emergency – and it continues to deepen with no end in sight. We are two years into a famine in parts of the country – this is unacceptable in this day in age.”

Millions of Sudanese are trapped in a daily struggle to secure food, safety, and basic dignity. Families have exhausted every coping mechanism. Parents are skipping meals so their children can eat, children are going hungry. Communities have been uprooted again and again, often fleeing with nothing. Violence, displacement and economic collapse grind on with no end in sight.

‘Sudan is one of our most complex and demanding operations anywhere in the world…’

For the World Food Programme, Sudan is one of our most complex and demanding operations anywhere in the world. Our teams are operating amid active conflict, shifting frontlines, bureaucratic hurdles, and severe access constraints. Humanitarians, including our staff and partners, are being targeted by perpetrators of this conflict. Yet, we continue to deliver.

Each month this year, WFP has reached 3.5 million of people across Sudan with emergency food and nutrition support, including families in hard‑to‑reach areas and communities newly displaced by fighting. Two‑thirds of those WFP assists are in Darfur and Kordofan, where famine is confirmed and where fighting is heaviest.

‘Two‑thirds of those WFP assists are in Darfur and Kordofan, where famine is confirmed and where fighting is heaviest…’

To continue this work, we need parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian aid to move freely, safely and at scale. We need far more international funding to urgently increase vital humanitarian assistance. We need much more pressure on the solutions that exist to protect civilians, now, today. We have the tools, the teams, and the experience to alleviate this suffering if our work is facilitated.

But the crisis in Sudan does not exist in isolation.

It is now being dangerously compounded by wider global instability, including from the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. Disruptions to trade and shipping routes, especially through the Red Sea, are driving up the cost of food, fuel, and fertilizer – core commodities that Sudan imports at scale.

Fuel prices have already increased by over 24 percent, and in some more remote areas this is much higher. This will affect the price of all staple goods and push more people into hunger.

Media attention, political will, and funding, have not kept pace with realities on the ground.

So today, on this grim anniversary, our message is simple and urgent:

Do not let Sudan become a forgotten emergency.

Do not allow global crises elsewhere to eclipse the suffering of millions of Sudanese families, Smith concludes.