UN Appeals For Aid As Conflict, Hunger, Disease Swamp Sudan, South Sudan

Acute hunger, massive displacement, and worsening cholera epidemics in conflict-ridden Sudan and South Sudan have led both the United Nations and one of its key specialized agencies (WFP) to issue appeals for urgent funding.

In statements issued this week, the UN and its key specialized agency (WFP) both highlighted that millions across both nations are facing catastrophic food insecurity, a crisis exacerbated by ongoing violence that has shattered livelihoods, destroyed infrastructure, and forced entire communities from their homes.

From the dire malnutrition crisis gripping children in Sudan’s El Fasher to emergency food airdrops in remote, conflict-hit areas of South Sudan, humanitarian organizations are struggling to keep pace with the overwhelming needs.

Both organizations are facing severe funding shortfalls as they race against time to avert an even greater catastrophe. The UN says only 21 percent of the USD 4.2 billion humanitarian response plan in Sudan has been met, while funding gaps mean the WFP can only provide reduced assistance to just a third of the 7.5 million in desperate need of aid in South Sudan.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that in El Fasher, Sudan, those remaining are facing “extreme shortages” of food and clean water, with markets repeatedly disrupted. He also noted that nearly 40 percent of children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11 percent with severe acute malnutrition.

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Meanwhile, cholera continues to wreak havoc in both countries.

On Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced the allocation of USD five million to bolster emergency cholera response efforts in Sudan, where the waterborne disease has killed at least 2,100 people since July 2024, according to the UN.

UN agencies and partners have recorded more than 84,000 cholera cases in Sudan over the past year.

In South Sudan, the figures stand at 1,400 deaths and 80,000 cases since October 2024, according to the UN.

The conflict in Sudan has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and displaced over 12 million people from their homes since it began in April 2023. According to reports, approximately four million individuals have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including Ethiopia.

The fighting in South Sudan, which erupted in March 2025, has also seen South Sudanese civilians flee in droves, particularly to Ethiopia’s Gambella Regional State, which is seeing up to 1,000 refugees cross the border daily, according to a recent report from the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department.

The WFP reports that it has begun emergency airdrops to deliver life-saving supplies to areas cut off by fighting. The agency has initiated airdrops of emergency food assistance to over 40,000 people in remote areas of Nasir and Ulang counties in South Sudan, according to a press release published this week.

Still, it says it urgently requires USD 274 million to continue life-saving operations in South Sudan.

“Without a major scale-up in assistance, the counties of Nasir and Ulang risk slipping into full-blown famine,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP country director in South Sudan.