The World Food Programme will be forced to slash food rations by up to 70 percent for besieged communities in Sudan, starting in January, as its resources are projected to run out in just four months amidst the world’s worst hunger crisis.

The World Food Programme (WFP) will reduce food distribution rations in El-Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, due to a lack of resources starting in January 2026, as an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people remain trapped amid the collapse of basic services. The agency currently has enough resources to continue aid for barely four months.

Food rations will be cut by 70 percent for communities facing famine and by 50 percent for those at risk —the bare minimum needed to survive—.

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Ross Smith, the WFP’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, explained that communication outages are severely restricting access to information, offering only a partial view of the crisis’s full scope.

Unfolding catastrophe

Reports from satellite imagery and escapees paint a grim picture, showing burned bodies, deserted markets, and horrific violence, Smith said. He added that trade routes remain closed, aid deliveries are not reaching the city, and the WFP lacks local humanitarian partners or functioning community kitchens.

Escape routes are extremely perilous, with documented incidents of looting, sexual assault, and mined roads. Those who managed to flee faced steep transport costs to reach areas where assistance is scarce.

Smith also highlighted the situation in Twil, where over 650,000 displaced people are surviving in makeshift shelters amid cholera outbreaks and severely limited access to essential services.

The UN has described the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe and “most extreme hunger crisis”.

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