The United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration on Friday appealed for more international assistance for millions of people uprooted by the war in Sudan. The agencies cited desperate funding shortages, empty warehouses and overwhelming needs, according to UN News.
Some 15.4 million people urgently require shelter across the country, UN News reported. The war that erupted in April 2023 between former allies who became rival military forces is deepening civilian suffering. In a joint statement issued on Friday, the two agencies said humanitarian groups can assist only about one in 10 of those in need because of funding shortages. The statement did not name who provided money already received.
Mohamed Refaat, chief of mission in Sudan for the migration agency, spoke from Khartoum. He said 16 trucks arrived in Darfur the day before the appeal and that those trucks were the last supplies left in stock. “Our supplies are running out,” he said. He said access to displaced and returning people is better than it was, so teams can reach more people and hear accounts of their suffering. “We cannot say that we don’t know,” he said.
Abubakarr Jalloh, deputy representative in Sudan for the refugee agency, spoke by video from Khartoum. He said shifting front lines continue to force families to flee, leaving many without a safe place to sleep or a blanket. For a woman who has lost everything, he said, a tent can mean dignity, privacy and safety instead of sleeping in the open among strangers. He said a solar lamp can let a woman reach a latrine at night, and a kitchen set can let a mother cook for her children without extra risk.
Three in four people displaced inside Sudan are women and children, Jalloh said. He said El Niño-related weather conditions brought significantly below-average rainfall this year and affected harvests in Darfur, Kordofan and other areas already devastated by fighting. He said food prices remain very high even though they would normally ease after the harvest. For a family that has lost everything, he said, money spent on food cannot also buy a blanket or materials for safe shelter.
With emergency supplies at critically low levels, the agencies warned that unless flexible funding is provided urgently, more families will face the coming winter without protection from harsh weather, insecurity and the risks of violence and exploitation. Refaat, also speaking by video from Khartoum, said he had distributed more than 40,000 tonnes of relief assistance this year, but warehouses are now completely empty.
Over 5.2 million people have gone back to the places they came from, yet many still cannot enter houses that were wrecked or robbed, UN News reported. Health care, electricity and water services are largely unavailable in many locations, so people might be forced to leave again without hope of returning.
Refaat said Sudanese nationals are now the largest nationality arriving in Europe by the Eastern Mediterranean route. If aid cannot be provided in Sudan at scale, neighboring countries and other countries will be affected, he said.
UN News said Sudan is facing the largest displacement crisis anywhere. Even so, the country’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is still badly short of funds. Just 47% of the $2.9 billion the plan needs has come in so far. The report did not say who provided that money. Refaat said millions of Sudanese families have already lost a great deal, and that aid cannot undo what they have endured, but it can give them a safe place to sleep.