UN says Sudan’s El Obeid faces severe food crisis over food rations

July 17, 2026 (GENEVA) – The Sudanese city of El Obeid has seen its population nearly double due to displaced people, leaving food, water, and fuel supplies under extreme strain, the World Food Programme said on Friday.

The city, which normally holds over half a million residents, is now crammed with families living in open camps and host communities, according to Abdallah Alwardat, WFP Sudan Country Director.

Speaking at a United Nations briefing in Geneva from the nearby town of Kosti, Alwardat warned that while WFP has managed to get food into the area, some partners have been blocked from delivering aid directly to those in need over the last few days.

The shortages have become so severe that families are splitting up already reduced food rations just to keep each other alive, Alwardat said, describing it as a striking sign of solidarity under desperate conditions.

WFP currently provides food assistance to more than 100,000 people in the city’s camps, but Alwardat noted that a vast number of displaced people outside the camps still urgently need help.

An elderly woman at a distribution centre told the director that the agency’s food drops were her only means of survival, yet even that was no longer enough.

Millions across Sudan face acute food insecurity, with the WFP currently supporting between three and five million people nationwide.

Alwardat said that local communities are trying to cope with an overwhelming humanitarian crisis, but warned that the situation will deteriorate further without immediate international support.

WFP currently holds enough resources to sustain operations in the area for the next two to three months, the director confirmed.

The agency could scale up its response if donor nations provide more flexible funding, Alwardat said, noting that the main supply road from Kosti to El Obeid remains functional.