UNHCR and IOM say funding limits humanitarian agencies to prioritizing around one in 10 people in need. Their joint statement says 936,000 people have received assistance so far.
An estimated 15.4 million people in Sudan urgently need emergency shelter and basic household items, the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on 6 November. Funding shortages mean humanitarian agencies can prioritize assistance for only around one in 10 of them.
That proportion describes the limited response agencies can prioritize, not the number already helped. The agencies' joint statement said 936,000 people had received assistance so far.
The crisis follows a war that began in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Shifting front lines continue to drive families from their homes, said Abubakarr Jalloh, UNHCR’s deputy representative in Sudan.
IOM Sudan chief of mission Mohamed Refaat said the agency had distributed more than 40,000 tonnes of relief in 2026, but its warehouses were completely empty. He said 16 trucks that arrived in Darfur on 5 November carried the last supplies in its stocks.
Refaat said access to displaced people and returnees had improved, allowing agencies to reach more people even as supplies ran out. Sudan’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan had received 47% of the $2.9 billion required as of 6 November.
More than 5.2 million people have returned to their areas of origin, but many cannot return to homes that have been destroyed or looted. Health care, electricity and water are also largely unavailable in many return locations, and people could be forced to leave again.
Jalloh said food prices remained high after the harvest, leaving families with less money for blankets and shelter materials. He said tents can provide privacy and safety, while solar lamps help women reach latrines without walking in darkness and kitchen sets help mothers cook for their children without unnecessary risk.
A strike-related power failure stopped dialysis for 25 patients at a hospital outside Khartoum, UN coordinator Denise Brown says. Fuel shortages have also stranded hundreds of aid trucks, preventing food, nutrition and shelter deliveries.
UNHCR and IOM are calling for urgent, flexible funding to replenish emergency stocks. Without it, the agencies warned, more families will face winter exposed to harsh weather, insecurity and the risks of violence and exploitation.
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The council’s report also attributes 176 soldier deaths to drone attacks. A separate Sudanese report alleges 70 assaults involving 187 drones were launched from Ethiopia, which denies aiding the force accused of carrying them out.
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Emergency Lawyers puts the toll from Monday’s attacks in Nyala, Sudan, at more than 100 dead and 113 wounded. MSF says its teams saw more than 150 wounded at one hospital.
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