The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a partnership of 21 organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization, said on Monday that an El Nino-induced drought affecting roughly half of the country is worsening the impact of ongoing conflict.
The IPC warned that healthcare is extremely limited and often entirely inaccessible, while clean water is becoming increasingly scarce, leaving a poorly nourished population highly vulnerable to disease and death.
Farmers' livelihoods have deteriorated, and dependence on food assistance is rising. The IPC said food insecurity, acute malnutrition, and excess mortality will likely intensify.
Poor vegetation growth affects nearly two-thirds of cropland in North Darfur and about half in South Darfur, West Kordofan, and South Kordofan, where severe water shortages and limited opportunity for agricultural recovery threaten livelihoods.
The report noted worsening acute malnutrition in additional areas, including Nyala, where the proportion of children admitted for severe acute malnutrition doubled from approximately 5% to 11% between January and August. Two displacement camps in South Darfur recorded global acute malnutrition above famine thresholds.
In North Darfur, delayed rains that impacted crop cultivation and critically low food stocks have worsened food insecurity. Western Kordofan is suffering one of its worst droughts since 2004 amid poor rainfall.
In May, nearly 19.5 million people, over 40% of the population, were facing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to an IPC assessment. Of those, 135,000 were in Phase 5, the most severe classification, characterized by extreme lack of food and high mortality.