Aid leaders meeting in Berlin warned that the war in Iran and the wider Middle East is aggravating Sudan’s humanitarian emergency, three years into its civil war. They said disruptions to supplies from the Gulf are driving rapid increases in the cost of food and fuel and threaten next season’s harvests because Sudan relies on Gulf imports for fertilizer and diesel.
Senior officials from German aid group Welthungerhilfe and the UN World Food Programme told reporters the Iran war is having “dramatic consequences” for essential items. Welthungerhilfe director Matthias Mogge said teams on the ground reported “massive price rises,” with fuel up to 80% more expensive and staples such as wheat about 70% higher. He added that rising delivery costs have reduced the amount of aid organizations can deliver.
WFP deputy head Carl Skau warned that Sudan’s diesel imports come entirely from the Gulf and are being severely disrupted by problems around the Strait of Hormuz. He also noted that all fertilizer arriving in the country comes from the Persian Gulf; limited access to fertilizer would damage future harvests. Much Sudanese farming depends on irrigation pumps powered by fuel, so diesel shortages threaten production and household food access further down the line.
Some 19 million people in Sudan are already at risk of acute hunger amid a conflict that has displaced more than 11 million and effectively split the country. The UN says donors have provided only about 16% of the funding required for aid projects in Sudan this year, deepening the shortfall for emergency assistance.
Aid agencies said violence has intensified the civilian toll. Drone strikes have become near-daily occurrences: the UN reported nearly 700 civilians were allegedly killed in drone strikes in the first three months of this year. UNICEF said drones were “responsible for nearly 80 percent” of the at least 245 children reported killed or injured during that period, with attacks hitting homes, markets, roads, schools and health facilities. Doctors Without Borders said five drone strikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces in Darfur left two dead and 56 wounded, condemning what it called a disregard for civilian life.
The war began in April 2023 after an uneasy alliance between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) collapsed. The RSF traces its origins to the Janjaweed militias blamed for atrocities in Darfur and has been accused of planning ethnic cleansing against non-Arab groups including the Fur and Zaghawa. The RSF now controls much of southern and western Sudan, while the military, which regained control of Khartoum in March 2025, holds most of the north and east. Fighters on both sides face allegations of war crimes, and the RSF has set up a parallel administration in Nyala, contributing to a de facto partition of the country.
The Berlin conference — organized by France, Germany, the UK, the US, the EU and the African Union on the third anniversary of the war — sought to draw attention to the scale of the crisis and to close the funding gap for aid. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the situation “the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time” and said Germany supports efforts by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States to secure a ceasefire. Germany is a major donor, and one of the conference’s most urgent goals is to mobilize the funds needed to avert a deeper catastrophe in Sudan.