Customers buy vegetables at a market in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
CAIRO (AP) — More than 40% of the population in war-torn Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity through May as the conflict enters its fourth year, a global hunger monitoring group said Thursday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said in a new assessment that of the nearly 19.5 million people facing this level of food insecurity, 135,000 people were in Phase 5, which is characterized by “extreme food gaps, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition, and death due to disease or acute malnutrition.”
“Conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the upcoming June–September lean season,” the IPC assessment statement read. It warned that an estimated 825,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026 amid limited access to medical treatment, marking a 7% increase compared to last year and a 25% increase compared to prewar levels.
More than 98,500 children received treatment for severe acute malnutrition between January and March, according to the IPC.
