Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan Worsens, With Disproportionate Impacts to Women and Girls

May 11, 2023
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With over 600 people dead, 5,100 injured, approximately 730,000 displaced, and few health centers operational, the dire situation in Sudan is getting worse, with growing health and hunger concerns.

The conflict threatens the planting season which is set to begin at the end of May. If the season is missed, the number of people going hungry - at 11 million or 25 percent of the population prior to the current crisis - will increase. Before the conflict, one out of four people in Sudan was going to bed hungry. This additional (and imminent) threat to Sudan’s food system will impact women the most, a reality underscored by a recent analysis by CARE Sudan that found gender imbalances in the country’s existing hunger crises.

Macdonald continued, "Women are key in the food production chain and with current fighting, they can’t access the farms and agricultural inputs to produce food, leaving families and communities unable to get food. The conflict needs to end for Sudanese farmers to confidently return to their fields to support not only their families but also the wider community.”