A network of community kitchens in Sudan - a crucial lifeline for millions of people caught up in the civil war - is on the verge of collapse, a report says.
The warning from aid organisation Islamic Relief comes after a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine conditions were spreading in conflict zones.
The locally run kitchens have operated in areas that are difficult for international humanitarian groups to access, but are facing closure due to neglect, shortages, and volunteer exhaustion.
Sudan's people have been brutalised by more than two years of war after fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It has created what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with estimates that more than 24 million people are facing acute food shortages.
Most of the kitchens 'will close if nothing changes in six months, with maybe one or two surviving in each area,' one volunteer is quoted by the Islamic Relief report as saying.
These local initiatives often operate alongside social networks known as Emergency Response Rooms that have filled the gaps of collapsing government services and limited international aid. Everyone from teachers to engineers to young people pitch in.
Financial fragility is the most pressing issue the kitchens face. They are now funded mainly by the Sudanese diaspora, after the USAID cuts earlier this year.
'It was like someone cut a rope we were holding on to,' one volunteer said.
These community kitchens, often the only hope for survival, are now facing severe operational challenges, such as the lack of safe water and firewood. Aid agencies report delivery obstructions exacerbated by bureaucratic delays and conflict-related disruptions.
The situation is particularly dire in besieged cities like el-Fasher and Kadugli, primarily cut off from humanitarian assistance and facing confirmed famine conditions.
With over half of Sudan's population facing acute shortages, the community kitchens symbolize resilience amidst despair, but their survival hangs in the balance as conditions worsen.
