A network of community kitchens in Sudan - a crucial lifeline for millions of people caught up in the civil war - is on the verge of collapse, a report says. The warning from aid organisation 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 brutalised 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. Financial fragility is the most pressing issue the kitchens face, with funding heavily reliant on the Sudanese diaspora following cuts to USAID earlier this year. The chaos has made operational challenges severe, with many kitchens lacking safe water, firewood, and facing bureaucratic delays that obstruct aid deliveries.

Without immediate assistance and operational support, these community kitchens risk becoming non-functional, leaving millions in peril as humanitarian needs continue to escalate significantly across Sudan.