As the people of Sudan continue to endure an unprecedented humanitarian and protection crisis, they have been confronted with another challenge: reductions in life-saving assistance due to major cuts to humanitarian aid budgets. These shortfalls have affected all types of assistance, including for people facing the most catastrophic levels of need. Crisis-affected communities have seen their food rations cut, lost access to clean water and safe spaces, and gone without shelter, medicine, nutrition supplies, protection services and other forms of vital support. These funding gaps are projected to persist in 2026, further jeopardizing the lives of the most vulnerable.
“It feels like someone turned off the light on us. The war destroyed our homes, but the funding cuts destroy our future.”
Woman humanitarian leader and head of a national NGO, Gedaref
In recognition of this harsh reality and in line with the Humanitarian Reset, the humanitarian community in Sudan undertook a strict prioritization exercise for the 2026 HNRP. The plan’s scope was significantly narrowed, encompassing only people in inter-sectoral severity 4 and 5 localities, as well as pockets of severe need in inter-sectoral severity 3 localities. Activities were limited to the most critical life-saving assistance, with other interventions—including those focused on resilience-building, service rehabilitation and livelihood support—shifting to development partners, including through the Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF).
Within these parameters, the humanitarian community will target 20.4 million people in 2026, including 14 million people in inter-sectoral severity 4 and 5. This represents a reduction of more than half a million people compared to last year (when 20.9 million people were targeted), despite needs having increased by more than 10 per cent.
Given this strict boundary-setting, humanitarian partners have also had to harshly prioritize and revise programming and operating modalities. As such, the 2026 HNRP should be seen as a basic survival package of urgent life-saving assistance for those in most dire need. While this package will provide critical life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable communities, it also means that millions of people will not receive the support they desperately need, and will likely face deeper and more acute suffering over the course of 2026 (see also Section 2.3).
People in need, targeted, prioritized and severity by location
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
OCHAResponse Overview
In 2026, more than 170 humanitarian organizations will work together to implement quality and principled life-saving assistance, with a focus on integrated, multi-sectoral interventions to people in most urgent need. Activities will contribute to two strategic objectives:
SO1:
Reduce crisis-related morbidity and mortality through principled, rapid, quality, inclusive, safe, dignified and accountable life-saving assistance
SO2:
Protect the safety, dignity, and rights of crisis-affected people, in line with international law and standards
Number of people targeted by strategic objective 1
Number of people targeted by strategic objective 2
As part of the preparations for the 2026 HNRP, an extensive community consultation process was undertaken by the inter-agency Accountability to Affected People Network between August and October 2025. As part of this work, the network conducted community consultations, feedback collection and validation exercises to capture the diverse perspectives of affected people and to inform planning at both cluster and inter-cluster level. The process engaged 3,429 community members and 145 community-based organizations—including women-led organizations (WLOs) and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) across Sudan’s 18 states—directly helping to ensure that the humanitarian response in Sudan remains grounded in, and accountable to, affected communities.
“We hope now that the planning would respond to our needs, with transparency and fair response.”
Community member who participated in the HNRP community consultations, North Darfur
Demographics of the 2026 HNRP community consultations
Demographics of the 2026 HNRP community consultations
Demographics of the 2026 HNRP community consultations
Access Constraints and Challenges:
The humanitarian operating environment in Sudan remained dynamic and highly challenging in 2025. While some areas (particularly Khartoum and Aj Jazirah) became more accessible, other parts of the country (especially in North Darfur and the Kordofan region) experienced a surge in hostilities, creating significant access challenges for humanitarian actors. In addition to the direct impact of hostilities, violence against aid workers and facilities remained alarmingly high, with 92 aid workers killed, injured, kidnapped or detained in 2025. Local responders, including volunteer networks and mutual aid groups, were also increasingly targeted. Flooding, damaged infrastructure, and landmine and ERW contamination have further restricted the safe movement of people and supplies, hindered operations and limited civilian access to essential services.
Security incidents affecting aid workers
Throughout 2025, the humanitarian community ensured continuous engagement to enable a conducive operating environment. As a result, progress was made particularly with relation to the processing of visas and residency permits for humanitarian workers. Complementing aid delivery within Sudan, continued movement of life-saving supplies through key border crossings enabled humanitarians to reach approximately 3.4 million people in the Darfur and Kordofan regions. In 2025, humanitarian organizations reached 17.1 million people across Sudan.
This principled engagement will be further strengthened in 2026, in order to facilitate humanitarian access and advocate for the protection of civilians, in line with International Humanitarian Law, the Sudan Joint Operating Principles and the provisions set out in the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan. A key area of engagement will be to continue to jointly address any arising bureaucratic and administrative impediments (such as delays of movement permits, aid convoys and staff deployments), and interference in operations, which would affect the humanitarian response. Building on progress made in 2025, expanded international presence in the field will further facilitate local dialogue, while the Humanitarian Access Working Group will leverage its efforts to support access negotiations and provide timely recommendations to guide strategic decisions and advocacy.
Response Priorities and Pillars
“We don’t want to live on aid forever, but without it we won’t live at all.”
Father whose family stopped receiving assistance due to funding cuts, East Darfur
In 2026, the humanitarian community aims to deliver an ambitious, principled, prioritized and agile response that is firmly grounded in the Humanitarian Reset as well as laser-focused on assisting those in most dire need and enabling a more protective environment for the most vulnerable.
Multi-sectoral assistance will be strengthened in priority areas to more effectively save lives and provide relief in line with communities’ feedback and preferences. This will include integrated approaches that span multiple clusters to fight back food insecurity, combat disease outbreaks and address other threats to people’s lives and well-being.
Agility will be core to these efforts. Priority areas will be reviewed regularly to ensure that the humanitarian community’s collective geographical prioritization remains relevant and takes into account major changes in the situation on the ground, including e.g. the spread of conflict to new areas or significant displacement movements. Where necessary, partners will re-programme their activities and shift resources to ensure that their interventions target areas in greatest need. They will also invest in more flexible and effective modalities, including mobile service delivery and scaling up multi-purpose cash assistance (see more in Section 2.4).
Further efforts will be undertaken to make the response more bottom-up and field-driven, including through the scale-up of international presence in key field locations and strengthening area-based prioritization. The humanitarian community will also work to advance duty of care considerations and protect frontline aid workers, particularly national and local responders including WLOs.
Khartoum, Sudan
A woman receives food at a WFP distribution site in Khartoum.
WFPResponse Pillars
Accountability to affected people (AAP) and people-centered response: Affected people will remain at the center of the response in 2026, with continued, concerted efforts to strengthen AAP. This includes concrete steps to promote two-way communication with communities to help close the feedback loop and to strengthen systems to ensure that humanitarian programming is rigorously informed by, and adapted to, the diverse needs, priorities and voices of affected people. This work will be supported by the work of the AAP Working Group, including the Inter-Agency Community Feedback Mechanism (see more in Section 2.2).
Centrality of protection: The centrality of protection will remain at the forefront of the humanitarian response in 2026, especially in light of the scale of the country’s protection crisis, as informed by the Protection of Civilians Advisory Group. Protection considerations will be mainstreamed across clusters and used to inform humanitarian decision-making by the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), with support from the Protection Cluster and other relevant bodies. Protection monitoring and risk analysis will be maintained to identify trends, vulnerable groups and coping mechanisms and to inform response planning. For more information on the centrality of protection, see here.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls: Building on progress made in 2025, the humanitarian community will continue to strengthen the integration of gender considerations across all phases of the response, with technical support from the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group (GiHA WG). Key to these efforts will be the active participation of WLOs in humanitarian coordination and decision-making, including through the Women’s Advisory Group (WAG) established in 2025 (see more in Section 2.2). For more information on gender equality in the Sudan humanitarian response, see here.
South Darfur, Sudan
A humanitarian worker working for a national NGO registers people for assistance in Nyala.
Great Family Organization/Algaya HamidInclusion of people with disabilities, older persons and other diversities: Needs assessments and the community consultations for the 2026 HNRP indicate that people with disabilities and older persons continued to face elevated protection risks and significant challenges in accessing humanitarian assistance in 2025. With support from the Inclusion Task Force, the HCT will in 2026 focus on ensuring an inclusive response that takes into account affected people in their diversity, including by enhancing data and analysis, making interventions more accessible and strengthening the participation of OPDs in coordination and decision-making.
Localization: In 2025, significant steps were taken to advance localization in Sudan, including the creation of the National NGO Advisory Group. Building on these efforts, the humanitarian response strategy will in 2026 aim to further transfer ownership of the response to local actors and strengthen bottom-up approaches to humanitarian coordination, programming and decision-making. In order to meaningfully advance localization, further efforts will also be needed to expand national and local actors’ access to funding, including through the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, and advocate for the protection of local responders, including WLOs, among other key priorities (see more in Section 2.2).
Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA): The humanitarian operation in Sudan ranks fifth on the global Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Risk Overview Index, underscoring high vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in the humanitarian response. Community feedback indicates that many women do not feel secure at aid delivery points and there are significant information gaps regarding feedback mechanisms, meaning many people do not know how to report cases of SEA. In this context, the humanitarian response strategy will continue to prioritize PSEA in 2026, with support from the Sudan PSEA Network. Based on an ongoing participatory and inclusive review of the 2024-2025 HCT/UNCT Action Plan to Prevent and Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, a 2026-2027 HCT/UNCT PSEA Action Plan for Sudan has been developed and will be implemented in 2026 to guide collective efforts. For more information on PSEA action in Sudan, see here.
Strengthening complementarity with development frameworks: Given the strict boundary-setting in place for 2026, alignment with development frameworks will be more critical than ever to ensure that people in need not covered by the HNRP do not fall through the cracks. The ICF for 2026-2028 will provide a critical complement to the HNRP, including its strong focus on promoting the restoration of inclusive essential services and strengthening socioeconomic recovery, livelihoods and food security, all of which were flagged as critical priorities through the community consultations for the 2026 HNRP. Durable solutions will be a central area of complementarity, anchored in national to local level coordination platforms. The approach will aim to ensure that activities contribute to longer term pathways for safe return and community stabilization, while also reinforcing coherence across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, particularly in areas of displacement and return.
References
- Aid Worker Security Database (accessed on 12 January 2026) (link).
- IASC. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Risk Overview, 2025 SEARO Global Index (June 2025) (link).
- Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group. Sudan: Women, Food Insecurity and Famine Risk in Sudan (21 July 2025) (link); Accountability to Affected People Working Group. Community Consultations for a Community-Driven HNRP 2026 (link).