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Port Sudan, 9th March 2025. In 2024, when the humanitarian community in Sudan needed $2.7 billion to address the most urgent needs of 14.7 million people. $1.8 billion was received, of which the United States contributed close to half ($805.7 million). On average, an estimated 4.4 million people across Sudan received some form of humanitarian assistance thanks to US funding.
In 2025, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan has reached critical levels, and humanitarian actors are seeking $4.16 billion to reach 20.9 million people. As of 9 th March, only 6.3 percent of this had been funded, including 48.8% through US obligations; many—if not most—of this have now been terminated.
At least half of the international NGOs as well as national responders (formal or informal) actively delivering life-saving assistance across Sudan rely on funding from the US. The massive grant terminations announced on February 26 th, hours before a court order to resume funding was to take effect, have had an unprecedented impact on humanitarian operations.
While the impact on individual humanitarian aid actors is devastating, this is blinded by the impact this will have on millions of women, children and other vulnerable groups across Sudan in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Such impacts will likely be apocalyptic.
Famine has been confirmed in at least 5 areas in Sudan and is likely to expand in the next 3 months as conflict and restrictions to humanitarian access persist. The abrupt halt to funding from the US means that critical programs providing needed nutrition, food, health and protection to thousands in the thick of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises are at risk. Further, the ability of humanitarians to monitor and provide alerts on famine expansion will be challenging, as a key source of famine data across the globe, FEWS NET, has been taken offline, and other crucial data collection initiatives spearheaded by REACH, IMPACT and IOM have lost most if not all funding.
As conflict continues to rage, communities and humanitarian actors are facing grave restrictions to accessing and delivering needed aid. The recent withdrawal of MSF and WFP from areas in North Darfur is an indication of the impossible choices humanitarian actors continue to make in Sudan. The upcoming rainy season will further compound access challenges, necessitating a scale up of anticipatory actions to sustain aid access in a complex environment. This is a time when “all taps must run” save lives in Sudan.
As physical and bureaucratic access impediments continue to hamper the response, a funding cut of at least 45% will make it all but impossible to meaningfully sustain, scale up and preposition supplies to alleviate the most acute suffering for communities in Sudan.
In this new, resource-constrained environment, the collaboration of aid actors is critical. It is important to ensure assistance reaches communities in the fastest, most effective way. While making all efforts to sustain the delivery of assistance across Sudan by filling the gaps left by recent cuts, international partners should channel as much as possible of remaining funding to local responders. To preserve the level of humanitarian access international assistance is enjoying and to remain accountable to the communities we serve, it is critical that clear communications around these cuts are immediately rolled out to local authorities, partners, and clients.
It is also time for creative fundraising, for governments and donors, foundations, charities, faith-based networks, the private sector, and others to urgently step up to help fill the void left in the wake of these catastrophic cuts. The humanitarian imperative and principled delivery of assistance should remain the centre of how international assistance is shaped at this critical time in Sudan.