Omdurman, Sudan – When Marassi Alfadil arrived in Omdurman with her children, there was almost nothing waiting for them.
Eventually the family found a half-built building inside a compound to live in. There are no proper walls, no services and very little food. But for Marasi, it’s still safer than the city she fled.
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Six months earlier, she had escaped al-Fashar in North Darfur, just days before fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group took full control after an 18-month siege of the western town, which at the time was controlled by the group’s opponents in Sudan’s three-year civil war, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Thousands of people were killed during the RSF takeover, which a UN investigation found to have “characteristics of genocide”.
“The siege made life difficult,” she told Al Jazeera. “Goods couldn’t get in. Anyone who tried to bring food was detained or killed.”
Hundreds of thousands of people still remain in al-Fashar, where food shortages and violence continue under RSF control. The hunger crisis has become so severe that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system declared famine in November.
Similar conditions have emerged in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, while at least 20 other areas in the disputed western Sudanese region of Darfur and the central region of Kordofan are at risk of famine.
siege and famine
In al-Fashar and other besieged cities, food, fuel and medicine have been cut off due to the prolonged blockade. Markets have either collapsed or become inaccessible.
The 2026 global report on food crises, released by the EU-funded Global Network Against Food Crisis, said the conflict in Darfur and Kordofan has severely disrupted humanitarian access, with “devastating impacts on food security”.
The report found that as of September, approximately 375,000 people were at the most extreme levels of hunger, concentrated in North Darfur, South Kordofan and West Kordofan states.
For civilians, this means that hunger has become inevitable.
Marasi’s experience reflects a broader pattern in western and central Sudan, where sieges and fighting have created famine-like conditions.
seeking refuge
Marassi is not the only one seeking refuge in Omdurman, which is part of the Khartoum region, the capital of Sudan, and controlled by the SAF.
In the same compound lives Taqwa, who fled Heglig in West Kordofan after fighting between the SAF and the RSF.
She arrived with twins who were just three weeks old.
But displacement has not ended his struggle for survival.
“It is difficult to feed two babies. I don’t have money to buy meat. I don’t have money to buy flour and make porridge,” Taqwa said. “And I can’t work because the kids are still too young.”
Their situation reflects the wider crisis highlighted in the global report on food security: displacement has stripped millions of people of their livelihoods and income, leaving them dependent on limited and inconsistent aid.
By the end of 2025, approximately 12 million people will be displaced, making Sudan home to the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
The UN estimates that about 25 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – were facing food shortages or worse crisis levels by 2025, including about 4.2 million children under the age of five.
And even in areas like Khartoum where people have fled, food remains scarce and expensive.
Aid agencies have reported continued shortages of funds while violence continues to restrict access to many areas.
For families like Takwa who depend on aid, the result is a daily struggle to survive.
“There is very little help here,” she said, “so we suffer.”
