Humanitarian assistance is failing to keep pace with the growing needs of displaced people in Sudan’s city of El Obeid, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday, as conflict continues to drive thousands from their homes across the country.
Speaking in Geneva after a visit to El Obeid, WFP Sudan Country Director Abdallah Alwardat said the city’s population has nearly doubled as people flee violence in North Kordofan, South Kordofan, West Kordofan and the Darfur region.
El Obeid, which previously had a population of about 500,000 to 600,000 people, is now hosting close to one million residents, placing severe pressure on food supplies, water, fuel and other essential services, Alwardat said.
More than 120,000 internally displaced people are living in formal camps, while many others have sought refuge with relatives, host communities or in temporary shelters across the city.
The WFP is currently providing food assistance to more than 100,000 people in displacement camps, but Alwardat said thousands of others remain without sufficient aid as humanitarian resources struggle to match the pace of displacement.
He said shortages of fuel have further complicated relief operations, forcing the U.N. agency to deploy its own truck fleet to transport food directly to distribution sites after humanitarian partners were unable to reach affected communities.
Alwardat described witnessing families sharing their already reduced food rations with neighbours who had received no assistance at all. During his visit, he also met an elderly woman who said the food provided by the WFP was her only source of nourishment but was still not enough to meet her needs.
The humanitarian situation in Sudan has deteriorated sharply since conflict erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, displacing millions of people and disrupting food production, markets and aid delivery across large parts of the country.
According to the WFP, Sudan is now facing one of the world’s largest hunger emergencies, with nearly 20 million people experiencing acute food insecurity. The agency warned that the crisis is likely to worsen unless additional international funding is secured to expand life-saving assistance.
Aid agencies have repeatedly appealed for greater financial support and improved humanitarian access, warning that continued fighting, logistical challenges and funding shortages are limiting efforts to reach vulnerable communities in Sudan, where millions remain in urgent need of food, shelter and medical assistance.
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