Farmers across several Sudanese agricultural regions told Reuters that escalating input costs are forcing them to scale back planting plans for key crops, including sorghum, millet, wheat and sesame, undermining production at a time when nearly half the population faces severe food shortages.

Sudan is particularly exposed to disruptions stemming from the regional conflict because it relies on Gulf countries for more than half of its fertilizer imports, according to United Nations data. The country has also become entirely dependent on imported fuel after more than three years of civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The crisis comes as Sudan remains one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies. A UN-backed food security monitor estimates that about 19.5 million people, or more than 40% of the population, are experiencing crisis-level hunger, with some areas facing famine risks.

Sadig Elamin, senior food security analyst for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Sudan, said the regional conflict had compounded existing challenges facing the agricultural sector.

“The regional war has added salt to the wound,” Elamin said, warning that agricultural output could decline by at least 40% if current pressures persist.
Agriculture remains central to Sudan’s economy and livelihoods, with roughly two-thirds of the population dependent on farming. Despite vast agricultural potential that has attracted Gulf investment interest, decades of conflict, underinvestment and mismanagement have constrained productivity.

In the Jamuia agricultural scheme south of Omdurman, farmers had anticipated a recovery after RSF fighters were expelled from areas surrounding Khartoum last year. Instead, they now face fertilizer prices that have risen 67% from a year earlier, while diesel costs used to power irrigation pumps have more than doubled, according to national surveys.

“At that price we don’t make a profit, you spend your whole profit on the diesel,” farmer Bashir Ismail told Reuters.

Omar Al-Ebeid, secretary of the scheme’s farmers’ committee, said only 500 of the project’s 10,000 feddans, equivalent to about 4,200 hectares, had been planted midway through the season.

Farmers also criticized the army-aligned government for failing to provide sufficient support as state resources are increasingly directed toward the war effort.

Mohamed Balla, who heads a farmers’ collective in the Gezira scheme, once responsible for around half of Sudan’s sorghum and wheat production, said damaged infrastructure and rising costs were discouraging cultivation.

“The RSF left in February of last year. Nothing has been fixed since then,” Balla said.

He added that crop prices have remained largely unchanged despite soaring costs for agricultural inputs. “Two sacks of wheat buy you one sack of urea. So we won’t grow it again.”

National cereal production had already fallen by about 25% from pre-war averages, according to FAO estimates. Analysts warn further declines could intensify food shortages and increase reliance on humanitarian assistance.

Sudan’s Agricultural Bank, traditionally a major source of financing for farmers, has also struggled amid the conflict. Farmers say financing terms have become increasingly burdensome, pushing many producers into debt.

The bank’s leadership told Reuters it was seeking to ease pressure on farmers by offering inputs on more favorable repayment terms and extending financing periods.

Fatma Yousif, director of agricultural production at Sudan’s Agriculture Ministry, said authorities were coordinating with the bank to establish a financing fund and examining options to help farmers manage fuel costs. She said efforts were also underway to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure damaged during the conflict.

In western Sudan, insecurity continues to hamper production in Kordofan and Darfur, regions critical for sesame, peanuts, millet and gum arabic exports.
“There is no funding for farmers, no machinery for planting and plowing the land, and no security because the RSF and other gangs loot the crops and demand money at every checkpoint,” said Mohamed Adam, a farmer displaced from West Kordofan to the army-held city of El Obeid.

Farmers in the region reported widespread looting of tractors and agricultural equipment, recruitment of farm laborers into armed groups, and mass displacement of rural communities, leaving large areas of farmland unprepared for the approaching rainy season.

Khalid Abdellatif, a director at agricultural supplier CTC Group, said transporting farming supplies into conflict-affected areas had become increasingly costly and dangerous, with small-scale farmers bearing the brunt of the disruption.

Dagalo, the brother of RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, was identified as playing a key role in sustaining RSF operations, including in El-Fasher, where widespread abuses have been documented during the group’s siege of the city.

A February report by the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan detailed what it described as grave violations committed during the assault on El-Fasher, including systematic starvation, torture, killings, rape and deliberate ethnic targeting on a large scale.

In addition to Dagalo, the council imposed sanctions on three Colombian nationals — Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero and Mateo Andres Duque Botero — for their alleged roles in recruiting former Colombian military personnel to fight for the RSF in Sudan.

According to evidence cited by U.N. officials, Colombian recruits provided tactical and technical support to RSF forces and served as infantry fighters, artillery operators, drone specialists, drivers and military trainers. Some were also accused of involvement in training children for combat.

The recruits were reported to have taken part in multiple battles across Sudan, including in the capital Khartoum, Omdurman, Kordofan and El-Fasher.
British Minister of State for Africa Jenny Chapman said the sanctions reflected a broader determination to hold those responsible for abuses accountable.

“We are cracking down on those who facilitate and profit from this conflict,” Chapman said in a statement. “We are determined that all individuals responsible for these atrocities will be held to account.”

She added that Britain, working with allies, would continue efforts to push Sudan’s warring parties toward negotiations, secure humanitarian access and pursue justice for victims.

The 1591 sanctions regime, established in 2005, includes travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargoes against individuals and entities accused of obstructing peace efforts in Sudan’s Darfur region. Diplomats said the latest measures were approved unanimously by all 15 members of the Security Council sanctions committee.

In February, Britain, France and the United States secured sanctions against four RSF commanders linked to atrocities in El-Fasher, signaling growing international concern over the deepening conflict.

Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, a power struggle that has triggered one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, displacing millions and devastating large parts of the country.

In Omdurman’s Al-Nao Educational Hospital, volunteers work as nurses, paramedics and pharmacists, often rushing to bomb sites to help victims.

Community kitchens known as “takkaya” provide free meals to families facing hunger, while local burial teams recover unidentified bodies and conduct funerals during ongoing shelling.

Many of these volunteers emerged from Sudan’s resistance committees, neighborhood groups that once led protests against former president Omar al-Bashir.

Despite reduced donations and constant danger, residents say they continue because basic survival in the war-torn capital depends on them.“We could leave tomorrow, but our country needs us,” one volunteer said.