WHO says only 23% of its $97.7 million appeal is funded, as 37% of health facilities have stopped working
By Bunmi Yekini
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor of which the World Health Organization is a member, warned on Monday of a growing risk of famine in parts of Sudan’s Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan regions.
In a Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Alert, the IPC said conflict, mass displacement, severe drought and too little humanitarian funding were driving a rapidly worsening situation.
An El Niño-induced drought affecting roughly half of the country is making things worse. It has cut food supplies, pushed up prices and hurt livelihoods, the alert said. It also flagged alarming levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in several localities, including new areas of concern.
Health care is extremely limited and often completely out of reach, while clean water is growing scarcer, the IPC said. That leaves a poorly nourished population highly exposed to disease and death.
The IPC called for an end to hostilities, protection of civilians, and safeguards for food, water and health systems. It also urged safe and sustained humanitarian access in frontline areas, especially North and West Kordofan, a bigger lifesaving response, and large-scale, flexible and predictable funding.
WHO said hunger and malnutrition make diseases hit harder, with malnourished people more likely to develop severe forms of illnesses such as cholera and measles.
This year, the agency has supported all 161 operational nutrition stabilisation centres in Sudan with training and supplies. Between January and August, those centres treated more than 26,000 children with severe acute malnutrition and medical complications.
The health system, however, remains badly weakened by conflict, displacement, attacks on health care and chronic funding gaps. WHO has verified 228 attacks on health care since April 15, 2023, which have killed 2,055 people and injured 817. By 2026, 37% of the country’s health facilities had stopped functioning.
Only 23% of WHO’s $97.7 million humanitarian appeal for Sudan has been funded. The agency is calling for more money and sustained access to expand essential health, nutrition and hygiene services and prevent further deterioration.
The IPC is a multi-stakeholder global initiative that works to improve food security and nutrition analysis to inform decisions.