CAIRO — The humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan’s Darfur region has dramatically worsened with famine conditions now confirmed in two additional towns, according to a Thursday report from the global hunger monitoring organization Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The towns of Umm Baru and Kernoi have joined the major city of el-Fasher in experiencing full-scale famine, creating an escalating pattern of food insecurity across the western conflict zone.
This alarming development occurs against the backdrop of Sudan’s devastating civil war, which erupted in April 2023 following a violent power struggle between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF had previously besieged el-Fasher for 18 months before overrunning the strategic city.
The IPC report emerged simultaneously with news of a deadly paramilitary assault on a military hospital in Kouik, located in South Kordofan province. Medical authorities confirmed the attack resulted in 22 fatalities, including the hospital’s medical director and three additional healthcare staff members. Eight others sustained injuries in the assault, though the exact number of civilian casualties remains undetermined.
United Nations agencies have classified the widespread humanitarian consequences of the ongoing conflict as the world’s most severe crisis. Beyond the newly confirmed famine locations, approximately 20 additional regions across Sudan currently face imminent famine risks according to previous IPC assessments. The organization had previously declared famine conditions in both el-Fasher and Kadugli, another city in South Kordofan, last November.