A network of community kitchens in Sudan – a crucial lifeline for millions of people caught in the civil war – is on the verge of collapse, a report says.
The warning from aid organization Islamic Relief comes after a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine conditions were spreading in conflict zones.
The locally run kitchens have operated in areas that are difficult for international humanitarian groups to access but are facing closure due to neglect, shortages, and volunteer exhaustion.
Sudan's people have been brutalized by more than two years of war after fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It has created what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with estimates that more than 24 million people are facing acute food shortages.
Most of the kitchens will close if nothing changes in six months, with maybe one or two surviving in each area, one volunteer is quoted by the Islamic Relief report as saying.
These local initiatives often operate alongside social networks known as Emergency Response Rooms that have filled the gaps of collapsing government services and limited international aid. Everyone from teachers to engineers to young people pitch in.
Financial fragility is the most pressing issue the kitchens face. They are now funded mainly by the Sudanese diaspora, after the USAID cuts earlier this year. It was like someone cut a rope we were holding on to, one volunteer said.
There are severe operational challenges, such as the lack of safe water and firewood. Aid agencies say both sides obstruct deliveries with bureaucratic delays and denials.
The situation is worst in the besieged cities of el-Fasher in the western Darfur region and Kadugli in South Kordofan state. Both are largely cut off from commercial supplies and humanitarian assistance.
In el-Fasher, the kitchens were reduced to serving animal fodder by the time the city finally fell to the RSF last week. Food security in Sudan shows stark contrasts along conflict lines, the IPC report says. Conflict still decides who eats and who does not. In areas where violence has subsided, the situation has begun to improve.
The Emergency Response Rooms have been hailed as a model for UN-led reforms. This year they were nominated for a Nobel Prize.
But after nearly three years, the volunteers find themselves increasingly on their own, facing burnout and danger, as they have become targets when territory changes hands. The situation continues to worsen, highlighting the urgent need for immediate intervention to support these kitchens.
