Poverty rates in Sudan have doubled since the outbreak of the war three years ago, with 70% of the population now living below the poverty line, according to Luka Renda, the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sudan, speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Renda said: “Looking at the situation before the war… we find that poverty rates have effectively doubled. Before the war, about 38% of the population lived below the poverty line, but now we estimate that the figure has reached around 70%.”
He added that “one in four Sudanese lives in extreme poverty, on less than two dollars a day.”
A few days earlier, the World Food Programme described the situation in Sudan as “the largest hunger crisis in the world,” noting that more than 19 million people, out of a population of about 45 million, are facing acute food insecurity amid the ongoing conflict and its economic and humanitarian consequences.
Renda confirmed that poverty rates rise to about 75% in conflict-affected regions such as Darfur and Kordofan.
He stated in the report: “After three years of this conflict, we are not just facing a crisis—we are witnessing the systematic erosion of the future of an entire country.”
He added: “These figures are not just data; they reflect families torn apart, children out of school, livelihoods lost, and a generation whose opportunities are shrinking day by day.”
