Without timely donor action, millions in South Sudan risk sliding deeper into acute food insecurity

Attachments • Download Report (PDF | 3.24 MB) South Sudan is facing a rapidly worsening food security crisis that demands urgent donor attention. The IPC April–July 2026 projection shows 7.8 million people, or 55 percent of the population, in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or worse, an increase of around 280,000 people compared to the September 2025 lean season projection. The response is not keeping pace with the scale of need. Limited resources have forced programming to concentrate on populations already in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), areas at risk of Famine, and selected IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) hotspots. As a result, millions of people in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) are receiving limited, irregular, or no support at all, despite the fact that more than 5.3 million people are already facing food consumption gaps and rapid erosion of livelihoods. In South Sudan, households in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) can deteriorate into Emergency within a single lean season if support does not arrive in time. Crisis is the last line of defense before families face far more severe hunger, asset loss, displacement, and heightened mortality risk. Timely assistance is therefore not only lifesaving but also cost-effective: it prevents further deterioration, reduces future response costs, and protects the resilience that communities need to recover. At the same time, support for populations already in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) must be urgently expanded and sustained. Current assistance is not only too limited in coverage, but often insufficient in intensity, with many highly vulnerable households unreached and others receiving reduced rations or short-duration support. Donor investment is therefore needed on two fronts: to scale up early action for populations in IPC Phase 3 Risk of Famine, under a realistic worst-case scenario, has been identified in Akobo, Nyirol, Luakpiny/Nasir, and Ulang, where conflict, displacement, access constraints, market collapse, failed production, and breakdowns in health and nutrition services are driving extreme need. Deterioration is wide-ranging, affecting Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity, Warrap, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and parts of Central and Western Equatoria, driven by escalating conflict, mass displacement, shrinking humanitarian access, flooding, limited market functioning and production shocks. Compounding the crisis, four consecutive years of severe flooding have destroyed crops, livestock and critical infrastructure. Since April 2023, South Sudan has received over 700,000 returnees and refugees from Sudan, with more than 70 percent settling in already vulnerable areas, placing extraordinary strain on limited resources and services