Supplies for malnutrition treatment and food distribution programs should be pre-positioned now, before communities are cut off by the rainy season.
Sudan’s fast-approaching rainy season threatens to worsen food insecurity in a country already experiencing a dire malnutrition crisis, in which children under 5 years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women among those most at risk.
The rainy season, which lasts from June to September in the war-torn Darfur region, is a critical time when food supplies dwindle, and malnutrition and disease outbreaks surge. As a two-year-old war continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, the rainy season threatens people in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, which has displaced about 13 million people. Many are struggling to secure even the most basic necessities, including food.
“The humanitarian response is faltering as warring parties block aid, insecurity grows, and rain is expected to wash away critical roads,” said Samuel Sileshi, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency coordinator for Darfur. “Last year, floods destroyed roads around Mornei bridge, a vital link for aid from Chad. With the rainy season approaching, these roads will soon be impassable again.”
Last year, floods destroyed roads around Mornei bridge, a vital link for aid from Chad. With the rainy season approaching, these roads will soon be impassable again.
Samuel Sileshi, MSF emergency coordinator for Darfur
MSF calls on both warring parties to prepare for the rainy season by repairing key roads and bridges that were damaged in recent years and lifting bureaucratic barriers to aid. A broader humanitarian response must also be funded.
“Institutional donors must fulfill their funding pledges to enable humanitarian actors to stock supplies before the rains start,” said Sileshi. “There is no time to waste. The people of Sudan can't wait any longer.”
The nutrition response is under pressure
In 2024, MSF outpatient therapeutic feeding programs admitted over 7,200 children under 5 years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women from Nyala and surrounding areas of South Darfur, all of whom had severe malnutrition. With limited access to nutritious food, these groups face a heightened risk of severe acute malnutrition which, if left untreated, is life-threatening.
MSF has provided emergency nutritional support in some of the most affected areas in recent months, but under the current circumstances, our teams are facing considerable pressure to expand and sustain these efforts. The scarcity of humanitarian activities run by UN agencies and the lack of a humanitarian response commensurate with the needs challenges efforts to address the food situation and the overall crisis in South Darfur and across Sudan. Because of limited resources, there are gaps in lifesaving services, especially in the treatment of malnutrition.
In December, MSF began distributing food parcels to the families of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women enrolled in our malnutrition treatment programs. The aim was to offer some short-term relief to those facing the harshest consequences of food insecurity, particularly as the economic situation continues to deteriorate.
In South Darfur, communities have been exposed to extreme levels of violence. Many have been displaced—with women often left to care for large families on their own, while cut off from income and support networks. With few options available, people struggle to meet their most basic needs.
“In West, Central, North, and South Darfur, where MSF operates, displaced individuals share horrific stories of fleeing with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” said Sileshi. “Their basic needs for shelter, food, clean water, and health care remain unmet.”
MSF provided food rations amounting to 2,000 calories per day per person for 4,300 families in Nyala and Kass, South Darfur—at an average of five people per family—to cover a period of two months. The aim, explained Hunter McGovern, MSF’s targeted food distribution project coordinator in South Darfur, is to “reduce instances where the child's therapeutic food is divided among hungry relatives. This allows the child to receive the full course of their nutrition therapy while increasing the nutritional situation of the whole family. Even with this activity in progress, the needs remain overwhelming."
"During our distributions, we found that the average family size is much larger than what we had initially planned for—sometimes as many as 10 people per household,” McGovern added. “This underscores just how critical the food shortage is and how much more assistance is required to meet the real needs of the population." People travel when they hear a relatives' family has received food assistance, underscoring the critical nutrition shortage on ground.
Urgent need for stronger humanitarian response in Sudan
MSF remains committed to addressing the urgent nutritional needs of people affected by the conflict in South Darfur; however, the scale of the crisis far exceeds the capacities of the limited number of organizations responding to the malnutrition crisis. As the rainy season fast approaches, so does the hunger gap—the time of year when it is most difficult for people in South Darfur to access food and for humanitarian supplies to reach the state.
There is no time to waste. The people of Sudan can't wait any longer.
Samuel Sileshi, MSF emergency coordinator for Darfur
Supplies for malnutrition treatment and food distribution programs should be pre-positioned now—before communities are cut off by the rainy season. Local responders need funding and support to continue and expand food distribution programs for their communities. It is possible, albeit challenging, to carry out food distributions and expand inpatient and outpatient therapeutic feeding programs in South Darfur, and it can help prevent needless suffering and mortality.
With deteriorating food security and rising malnutrition rates, urgent action is needed to scale up humanitarian assistance and ensure that children and families receive the support they desperately need. Without a concerted effort to respond, the crisis will only deepen, putting millions of lives at risk.