Sudan rebel-held areas face deepening famine, disease crisis, official says

October 8, 2026 (JEBEL MARRA)  – Deteriorating humanitarian and medical conditions in rebel-held pockets of Sudan’s Darfur region are killing around six people a day as crop failures, disease, and aid shortages bite, a local official said on Thursday.

The civil administration aligned with the Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur (SLM-AW) declared famine last month across Jebel Marra, Tawila, Ain Siro, and several camps for displaced people.

“Humanitarian and health conditions are in a state of growing decline across territories held by the movement,” Mohammed Youssef Fukuyama, a media adviser to the civil authority, told Sudan Tribune.

Fukuyama said severe acute malnutrition was climbing among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.

Local health centres lack the capacity and basic supplies to handle the influx of displaced families, contributing to outbreaks of measles, dengue fever, malaria, typhoid, cholera, leishmaniasis, and mpox, he said.

Aid deliveries remain far below what is needed to sustain civilians sheltering in camps including Tawila, Sortony, and Ain Siro, Fukuyama added.

A failed farming season, paired with soaring staple prices and widespread food shortages, has left many households unable to meet baseline food needs, he said.

Fukuyama called on international aid agencies to dispatch food and medical support and urged the creation of safe corridors to ensure relief reaches isolated populations.

The SLM-AW holds swaths of the mountainous Jebel Marra area and adjacent towns in Darfur, which have absorbed large waves of displaced civilians since conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.