Hunger deepens for displaced families in Sudan’s El Obeid

Hunger deepens for displaced families in Sudan’s El Obeid
UN humanitarians working in war-torn Sudan on Friday highlighted rapidly growing needs among the more than 100,000 displaced people now sheltering in camps in the city of El Obeid.
“We are providing even not the full food ration to the people, but even that reduced food ration is being shared by the recipients with other families, because they know that they don't have any other source of income,” said World Food Programme (WFP) Sudan Country Director, Abdallah Alwardat.
Why this matters
- More than 100,000 displaced need urgent aid.
- Hunger is worsening, water and fuel in short supply.
- Funding shortages limit life-saving food assistance.
- Sudan remains the world's largest displacement crisis.
Briefing journalists in Geneva via video from the city of Kosti, south of Khartoum, Mr. Alwardat provided an update on what he had just seen in El Obeid, where UN human rights chief Volker Türk has warned that civilians have been under siege for 18 months and face continuous drone strikes, ahead of a possible offensive by paramilitaries.
Race to scale up
“WFP has been providing food assistance to over 100,000 people in these camps inside the city”, but there are many more displaced individuals sheltering in El Obeid “and they need urgent assistance”, the WFP official said.
“What we need to do is really now to plan for the scale-up beyond the 100,000 people that we have been supporting,” Mr. Alwardat stressed, adding that the agency also provides nutrition support to 17,000 children caught up in the crisis and living in camps.
The veteran humanitarian described how one elderly woman he met was entirely reliant on the UN agency’s food rations, although this was only part of her problems: “She was waiting to receive the food and she was just thinking how to carry the food back to her tent.
“She wanted to move it on this little tuk-tuk…So, she was going around to look at other families, if they can share the cost of transferring the food back to the tents.”
It is more than three years since Sudan’s rival militaries embarked on a brutal war that followed the collapse of the country’s transition to civilian rule, after the overthrow of longtime former President Omar al-Bashir.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continues to battle former allies the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia for control of the vast country, where more than 14 million people have been uprooted and both sides have been linked to grave rights violations.
Millions have fled across the border in what has become the world’s largest displacement crisis and one of its biggest humanitarian disasters. Almost 20 million people in Sudan are now classified as acutely food insecure. WFP helps between three and five million of the most vulnerable, who face emergency or catastrophic food insecurity.
A city running on empty
“We want to do more, for sure. But of course, we are also stretched on our resources,” insisted WFP’s Mr. Alwardat. “But definitely, we have the access. We can deliver the food, and we can be there, and we can work with partners on the ground. Resources are limiting us to do that one.”
The veteran humanitarian said that on the hours-long drive from Kosti to El Obeid some 350 to 400 kilometres away, he did not see any military operations.
Mr. Alwardat also noted how few commercial trucks or supplies were heading towards the city, where food, water and fuel remain in very short supply. WFP’s mission to the North Kordofan capital city helped to alleviate fuel shortages which have prevented aid partners from delivering food to displaced people in recent days.
“As long as we have the necessary financial support, I think we have the means and the capacity to sustain that lifeline,” Mr. Alwardat insisted.
“And we have been delivering the food; the last two or three weeks, we have managed to deliver the food and the pre-positioned food for the next two months. And we started the distribution already for July, and we are ready to do for August.”