More than 40 per cent of the population in war-torn Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity through May as the conflict enters its fourth year, a global hunger monitoring group said yesterday.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a new assessment that, of the nearly 19.5 million people facing this level of food insecurity, 135,000 people were in Phase 5, which is characterised by “extreme food gaps, starvation, very high levels of malnutrition, and death due to disease or acute malnutrition”.

“Conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the upcoming June–September lean season,” the IPC assessment statement read. It warned that an estimated 825,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026 amid limited access to medical treatment, marking a seven per cent increase compared to last year and a 25 per cent increase compared to pre-war levels.