Sudanese Face Starvation as Soup Kitchens Shut Down and Warring Factions Hinder Aid Efforts | Sudan Conflict Updates

The United States’ decision to suspend foreign aid is worsening a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan, where millions are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related illnesses.

Since assuming office in January, US President Donald Trump’s administration has placed most employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on leave or fired them, and paused nearly all of the global projects it funds.

Last year, USAID contributed 44 percent to Sudan’s $1.8 billion humanitarian response, according to the United Nations.

A portion of this funding supported Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), neighborhood relief groups that operate hundreds of “community kitchens” across the country.

“About 80 percent of the 1,460 community kitchens across Sudan were shut down [when USAID paused all funding],” said Hajooj Kuka, the spokesperson for the ERRs in Khartoum state.

Filling the Gap

Since a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into civil war in April 2023, community kitchens have kept hundreds of thousands of people alive in regions where UN agencies and global relief organizations cannot operate due to the deliberate obstruction of aid by the warring parties, according to local and foreign relief workers.

Despite the efforts of ERR volunteers, more than 600,000 people in Sudan are experiencing famine levels of hunger, and around eight million are on the verge of slipping into famine, according to the UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

The pause in USAID funding now risks exacerbating the hunger crisis.

Iyad Agha, the humanitarian coordinator for international nongovernmental organizations in Sudan, said some organizations obtained waivers from the US government to continue providing life-saving services.

However, many of these services were eventually terminated after a subsequent US review determined they were not essential to sustaining life. Days later, the Trump administration reversed some terminations and allowed some services to resume.

Agha described Washington’s decisions as “completely random.”

“NGOs are paralyzed and don’t know how to proceed amidst the chaos and confusion, and the people who need aid in Sudan are the most affected by all of this,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The problem is that if other donors want to step in [to replace USAID], there is a large gap to fill,” Agha added.

ERRs have taken matters into their own hands to find alternative funding.

Kuka said community kitchens have sought funding from the Sudanese diaspora and smaller charitable organizations to continue providing meals to civilians during the holy month of Ramadan, which began earlier in March.

Their efforts have helped reopen hundreds of community kitchens across the country, but 63 percent remain closed since the US government paused most foreign aid, said Kuka.

“There is only so much we can do. There simply isn’t enough food for people,” he told Al Jazeera.

“But we have started an online drive for donations, and during Ramadan, people tend to give more,” he added.

Impediments and Looting

Both sides in Sudan’s civil war are responsible for the hunger crisis, according to local and foreign relief workers.

One issue cited by some relief workers is that UN agencies recognize the Sudanese army as the de facto government.

This policy allows the army to approve or deny aid shipments from neighboring countries like Chad and South Sudan, which it does not control. Critics have argued that humanitarian agencies should work with local authorities in each region of Sudan to reach as many people in need as possible.

Additionally, UN agencies operating under this policy are required to base all humanitarian operations out of Port Sudan, making it logistically difficult to reach distant regions such as the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and the vast area of Darfur.

The army is also accused of imposing bureaucratic obstacles to delay and obstruct aid shipments.

“The army’s procedures are very cumbersome. It’s a mountain of paperwork,” said Leni Kinzli, the spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP).

“For any aid truck to move, we need approval from military intelligence, the Humanitarian Aid Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Intelligence Services, and the National Intelligence Services,” she told Al Jazeera.

Analysts and relief workers also accuse the SAF of blocking aid to regions controlled by the RSF. However, army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah has repeatedly denied these allegations and criticized the RSF for starving civilians.

Hind al-Atif, the spokesperson for the ERR in Sharq el-Nile, a large neighborhood in Khartoum, accused the RSF of worsening the hunger crisis.

She said the group looted all the main markets in Khartoum ahead of Ramadan, and many civilians fear leaving their neighborhoods to search for food due to the risk of being attacked at RSF checkpoints.

“People are scared to flee because the RSF often robs them of their money and phones,” she told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera contacted the RSF’s press office for comment on allegations of looting and robbing civilians, but the group did not respond before publication.

Insecurity and Starvation

As fighting escalates between the RSF and the Sudanese army, local relief groups and aid agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to reach civilians in need.

In the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, where more than 500,000 people are sheltering and struggling to survive a famine, the WFP was forced to suspend aid operations after the RSF shelled the camp on February 10 and 11.

The WFP had been providing food vouchers to around 60,000 people in Zamzam through a local organization.

“Our partners on the ground were forced to evacuate. They had to run for their lives [due to RSF shelling], which is why we had to pause assistance,” said Kinzli.

The battle for Khartoum is also causing mass displacement in Sharq el-Nile, overwhelming the few remaining community kitchens tasked with feeding thousands of new arrivals.

As desperation grows, Kuka said many people are attempting to fish in the Nile or grow vegetables in their gardens, but the food they manage to produce is barely enough to survive.

He noted that ERRs are reaching out to the European Union and UN agencies to try to fill the gap left by USAID. If no one steps up, Kuka warned that hundreds of thousands of people will starve and die from malnutrition-related diseases.

“We are talking about 1.8 million people who rely on these kitchens. What happens if they can no longer get food?” asked Kuka.

“People are already on the brink. We [as ERRs] are doing our best to prevent more regions in Sudan from slipping into famine. But if this food shortage continues, there will be more and more pockets of famine across the country.”