As of today at least 473,700 people have lost access to health care, nutrition support, clean water and protection services after funding for IRC's Sudan response ended.
36 health facilities, 29 nutrition centers, 8 Women and Girls Safe Spaces and 6 child-focused safe spaces have closed.
Sudan is the world's largest displacement crisis, with 33.7 million people in need of aid and more than 9 million people displaced inside the country as the war continues well into its fourth year.
Access to critical health and nutrition services will end for thousands of families amongst the nearly 20 million people facing food insecurity and famine conditions across Sudan.
Donors must urgently fill the funding gap to prevent a collapse of the few services still reaching displaced families in Blue Nile, Khartoum, Darfur and beyond.
Nairobi, Kenya, October 1, 2026 — As of today, almost half a million people across Sudan have lost access to lifesaving health care, nutrition support, clean water and protection services after U.S. funding ended in July and the additional bridge funding IRC sourced to maintain programming in the interim has now run out, with no resources to fill the gap. Three and a half years into the conflict, 33.7 million people in Sudan are in need of humanitarian aid and diseases such as cholera are spreading amid the funding collapse.
The funding supported IRC's response across Blue Nile, Al Jazirah, River Nile, White Nile, Khartoum, West Darfur and North Darfur states, reaching displaced people, returnees and host communities with health care, nutrition treatment, clean water, sanitation and protection services.
"We have spent over 3 years watching what happens when the world looks away from Sudan," said Mohammed Mahdi, IRC Director for East Sudan. "Right now, in the middle of one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises on earth, we're being forced to close the doors on people who have nowhere else to turn. Donors have the power to change that. This is the moment to show up for Sudan."
The health and nutrition closures will hit hardest in Darfur, where malnutrition rates are already among the worst in Sudan and famine conditions have been confirmed in parts of the region. There, 14 facilities and mobile clinics provide care to an average of 16,900 patients and 6,381 young children a month–care that will disappear just as needs are spiking.
IRC teams have already started transitioning service provision, including a water system supplying 24,000 liters a day to a returnee camp to other responders, but most services are not confirmed to continue now that IRC’s support is ending. The end of water and sanitation support is a particular concern: the IRC program closures come as cholera continues to spread in Sudan, and losing safe water, sanitation and hygiene programs for more than 100,000 people increases the risk of the disease taking hold in already-overcrowded displacement sites.
Families in Tawila, North Darfur, an area that received thousands of displaced people from besieged El-Fasher last year, will also lose cash assistance for food, shelter, and water. Until today, the cash served as a safety net, helping households avoid taking harmful steps to survive, such as skipping meals or removing children from school.
As of today, Sudan's humanitarian response plan for 2026 remains just 42.8 percent funded, leaving a substantial gap in the resources needed to reach the 14 million people still displaced within Sudan and across its borders. IRC urges donors to commit urgently to closing this shortfall before more lives are lost.
