Reconstruction
In September 2025, amid Sudan’s civil war, the IPC Famine Review Committee concluded that classifying El Fasher in North Darfur and besieged Kadugli in South Kordofan as IPC Phase 5 Famine “with reasonable evidence” was plausible. The finding did not rest on unrestricted surveys: fighting and blockades severely limited access, so analysts used special protocols, triangulating available food-consumption, nutrition, mortality and livelihood data with assessments from nearby populations and key-informant reports. The committee projected famine through January 2026 but emphasized uncertainty about the conflict and sieges. Dilling was thought possibly comparable to Kadugli, yet evidence was too sparse for classification.
This famine was fundamentally a collapse of access to food. Conflict reduced cultivation, displaced farmers and herders, closed roads, constrained humanitarian deliveries and placed limited stocks under armed control. El Fasher’s encirclement sharply curtailed even smuggled supplies. Kadugli’s principal routes were controlled or unsafe, while the remaining connection with Dilling carried only irregular quantities. Currency depreciation, fuel costs and scarcity then made food beyond the reach of many households even when something remained for sale.
The crisis stripped diets down to their most basic components. Sorghum, millet and wheat are major Sudanese staples, normally transformed into breads, porridges and fermented foods. In El Fasher, sorghum and millet prices rose extraordinarily during mid-2025, and traders sold tiny quantities from dwindling stocks. In Kadugli, informants reported people surviving for weeks on red sorghum boiled in water; by early September, even sorghum reportedly disappeared from local markets. Meat, sesame, peanuts and cooking oil became scarce or prohibitively expensive, eliminating much of the fat, protein and dietary variety needed by children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Reported coping practices reveal the severity of deprivation rather than a new cuisine. In El Fasher, households reportedly ate ambaz, the pressed residue left after extracting oil from peanuts, sesame or sunflower seed. When that supply was exhausted, some consumed poorly digestible groundnut shells. Around displacement sites, observers reported people gathering grass or searching refuse for scraps. Community kitchens, once able to distribute a daily cooked meal, became critical institutions, but many closed or reduced portions because they could not replenish grain.
The event demonstrates how famine can occur despite food production elsewhere in the same country: siege, violence, destroyed livelihoods, market failure and blocked relief separated urban populations from harvests and trade. A May 2026 IPC analysis identified no Sudanese area then currently classified in famine, although millions remained acutely food-insecure and fourteen areas faced renewed famine risk. That later finding does not retrospectively negate the September 2025–January 2026 classification; it underscores that IPC famine determinations describe defined places and periods under changing, often incomplete evidence.
Historical context
Sudan had been at war since April 2023, with conflict fragmenting national markets and displacing large populations. September 2025 coincided with the lean season, when household grain stocks were normally at their lowest before harvest. The IPC estimated that approximately 21.2 million people—about 45 percent of Sudan’s population—were facing Crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity. El Fasher and Kadugli were isolated from otherwise more productive parts of the country, illustrating how modern transport, digital payments and international relief systems could not overcome armed blockades and unsafe supply corridors.
Evidence
Written sources
StrongThe IPC special analysis and Famine Review Committee report directly document the classifications, projection periods, food-system disruption and evidentiary limitations.
Dating
StrongThe Famine Review Committee supported the classifications for September 2025 and the October 2025–January 2026 projection period, but did not advise classifying February–May 2026 because conditions were too volatile.
Geographic attribution
StrongThe classifications apply specifically to El Fasher town in North Darfur and Kadugli town in South Kordofan, not automatically to their entire states or surrounding regions.
Food identification
ModerateSorghum, millet, wheat, sesame, peanuts, meat, ambaz and groundnut shells are identified in the IPC evidence, but many town-level details came from key informants because direct access was restricted.
Preparation method
LimitedThe report records red sorghum cooked in water and emergency consumption of ambaz and groundnut shells, but it does not provide systematic recipes, quantities or preparation observations.
Historical interpretation
ProbableThe famine findings were judged plausible with reasonable evidence under IPC special protocols. They involved triangulation, extrapolation and expert judgment rather than complete direct measurement of all three famine thresholds inside both towns.
Sources
- 1.IPC Global Famine Review Committee (2025). Famine Review Committee Report: Sudan. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Global Initiative. www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/doModern synthesis
- 2.IPC Global Initiative (2025). Sudan: IPC Acute Food Insecurity Analysis, September 2025–May 2026. IPC Special Brief. www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/doModern synthesis
- 3.IPC Global Initiative (2026). Sudan: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for February–May 2026 and Projections for June–September 2026 and October 2026–January 2027. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-mapModern synthesis
- 4.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; United Nations Children's Fund; World Food Programme (2026). Risk of Famine Persists as Nearly 19.5 Million People Face Acute Food Insecurity in Sudan. Joint FAO, UNICEF and WFP News Release. www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/risk-of-famine-persiModern synthesis
- 5.Mahgoub, S. E. O.; Ahmed, B. M.; Ahmed, et al. (1999). Effect of Traditional Sudanese Processing of Kisra Bread and Hulu-mur Drink on Their Thiamine, Riboflavin and Mineral Contents. Food Chemistry 67(2): 129–133. doi:10.1016/S0308-8146(99)00074-6Scientific literature
Limitations
- moderatecoordinates
The supplied coordinates represent El Fasher, but the card concerns two widely separated towns. Kadugli is approximately 11.01° N, 29.72° E, so one point cannot accurately locate the complete event.
- moderateconfidence
A card confidence of 10 may obscure the IPC's explicit evidentiary qualifications. El Fasher and Kadugli were classified as Famine with reasonable evidence using special limited-access protocols, with particularly high uncertainty about how well available data represented Kadugli's population.
- minordate end
The strongest IPC support for famine classification extends through January 2026. The Famine Review Committee advised against classifying February–May 2026 because of uncertainty, and the May 2026 IPC analysis identified no area then currently in famine, although severe food insecurity and famine risk persisted.
