News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The Communal Kitchens Fighting Famine in Sudan
Why you can trust us
Communal kitchens assist hundreds of thousands in Sudan鈥檚 embattled capital, Khartoum. They provide regular meals and social and emotional support amid a deepening famine that international aid groups are failing to tackle.
Run by neighborhood-based mutual aid groups called emergency response rooms, the kitchens are struggling with crippling funding gaps, security threats, and communications and electricity blackouts, volunteers told The New Humanitarian.
The wide-ranging challenges mean many kitchens only offer one meal per day. At the same time, some emergency response rooms have cut back to a single meal per week or have temporarily closed down even while their communities remain in desperate need.
鈥淭he service we gain from the kitchen is life-saving 鈥� but the food amount is not enough for everyone. Circumstances are very bad here,鈥� said Nisreen,* a woman from Umbada locality in Omdurman, a major city in the Greater Khartoum area. She said the Umbada kitchen can only offer one meal per week, usually beans or lentils. Still, people depend on that small amount, and a further reduction would be a 鈥渄isaster,鈥� she added.
Sudan鈥檚 war began in April 2023 and pitted the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the regular army. It has produced the world鈥檚 largest displacement crisis, uprooting nearly 10 million people, and the biggest hunger crisis, too. 2.5 million starvation deaths by September, of the world鈥檚 worst famine in 40 years.
Some of the most extreme hunger levels are in Greater Khartoum, which includes the devastated capital and its adjoining sister cities鈥擝ahri and Omdurman. Most of the area is controlled by RSF fighters, who invaded people鈥檚 homes at the start of the conflict and stripped them of their possessions.
Most international aid groups evacuated Khartoum at the outset of the fighting and haven鈥檛 yet returned. Their efforts to bring in supplies have been scuppered by the army and aligned authorities, which seek to starve RSF-occupied territories of relief.
While volunteers are leading an aid response, the number of people depending on them is growing as people鈥檚 coping mechanisms erode and thousands of people return to the capital鈥攖o escape the attacks and suffering in the places they had previously fled to.
Volunteers said the local and diaspora funding that sustains the kitchens is reaching its limits. Support from international donors remains insufficient with emergency response rooms.
鈥淭he funding is nothing compared to what people need,鈥� said Mawada, a kitchen volunteer from Umbada. She said her group is committed to helping its community despite the mounting challenges: 鈥淭he two warring parties failed to help civilians, but we can do it, and we will continue to.鈥�
Saving Lives and Dignity: 鈥淓verybody Should Be Able to Eat and Not Feel Shame鈥�
Mutual aid groups established themselves across Sudan after the war erupted. They drew members from a vibrant pro-democracy movement and brought ideas rooted in a rich heritage of social solidarity, best represented in the tradition of nafeer (鈥渁 call to mobilize鈥�).
The Greater Khartoum kitchens follow two different models. Under the takaya system, religious and community leaders feed people on the streets, in houses, or under trees; however, more structured kitchens are run in defined spaces by the emergency response rooms.
Hassan, who helps coordinate assistance across Greater Khartoum, said over 350 communal kitchens have been set up, assisting 500,000 families with at least one meal a day. 鈥淲e aim to save people鈥檚 dignity,鈥� he said. 鈥淓verybody should be able to eat and not feel shame. We, as Sudanese, are still helping each other. We survive together.鈥�
Volunteers said the kitchens run regular funding campaigns, using social media to request money from philanthropists and diaspora networks. They also receive disbursals from national and international NGOs, as well as from United Nations鈥搈anaged funds.
While international aid is blocked, the kitchens deal with local traders鈥攕ome affiliated with the RSF鈥攚ho are adept at navigating checkpoints and crossing front lines. Volunteers buy goods from them in markets or straight from traders鈥� houses.
The kitchens operate from relatively spacious places and are set up so that nobody has to travel too far to reach them. Besides offering food, they function as communal spaces where teachers run alternative education programs and women organize cooperatives.
While volunteers often work long hours preparing the food, they have time to participate in social activities and come 鈥渢ogether and chat鈥� as a group, said Jamal, a volunteer from Khartoum鈥檚 Al Jerief West locality.
Several volunteers said their public service helps them feel powerful and resilient, and that before joining the kitchens they had felt traumatized by war and sometimes too afraid to leave their houses.
鈥淭his is what keeps me staying in the conflict areas,鈥� said Ibrahim, a coordinator of the Maygoma kitchen in the Sharg Alneel area of east Khartoum. 鈥淚n my childhood, I used to pray to have enough money to help others, [but] I found out that it is not important to have money.鈥�
Low Funding, Increased Needs: 鈥淓ach Day We See New Faces鈥�
Despite their positive experiences, the half a dozen volunteers who spoke to The New Humanitarian said their kitchens lack adequate funding and resources, especially as the number of people in need balloons.
Ibrahim, from the Maygoma kitchen, said volunteers used to cook lunch and breakfast for their community, but they are now only offering just one meal a day. 鈥淭he number keeps increasing. Each day we see new faces,鈥� he said.
Mustafa, a kitchen coordinator in Al Kalakla locality in south Khartoum, said his group had observed a 鈥渉igh number of returnees鈥� who left the capital for the adjoining Gezira state last year but returned after the RSF invaded it in December. He also said that 10 kitchens in a part of Al Kalakla called Abu Adam have a budget of just $800 each per month and that he has seen people so hungry they were eating leaves from trees to survive.
Local philanthropists and benefactors in the diaspora have made critical contributions over the past year, but Ibrahim said funding 鈥渋s decreasing with time because they have other responsibilities.鈥�
Emergency response rooms have received only a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars that international donors have provided to humanitarian actors in Sudan.
The vast majority of donor money has gone to the UN and international NGOs鈥� financially鈥攄espite their limited access to the most conflict-affected areas and the restrictions warring parties place on them.
鈥淭his is a really important part of the humanitarian response that isn鈥檛 appropriately recognized or supported at the moment,鈥� Will Carter, the Norwegian Refugee Council鈥檚 country director in Sudan, told The New Humanitarian.
鈥淥ut of a total aid appeal of over $2 billion, it鈥檚 not that much to ask for between 2% and 5%, at least for all these brave frontline responders that are providing very critical services in very neglected and hard-to-reach areas,鈥� Carter added. He said one of the main problems is that donor governments have rigid policies and funding procedures that clash with how local response efforts are organized and with 鈥渨hat their priorities are and should be.鈥�
Some communal kitchens said they have reached out directly to international organizations for funding, but this approach can exclude groups with weak English skills or the ability to speak the language of international aid.
Blackouts, High Prices, and Security Threats
An internet blackout has 鈥攔eportedly imposed by the RSF鈥攖hat means volunteers cannot easily do media awareness campaigns.
The blackout is also challenging because it prevents emergency response rooms from accessing e-banking systems, which they use to receive and spend money amid cash shortages and bank closures, said Hassan, the coordinator for Greater Khartoum.
While funding for the kitchens is low, the prices of goods can be incredibly high, according to volunteers and traders. One businessman working in Al Kalakla said, 鈥淚nflation is digging into people,鈥� with sugar costing eight times its pre-war level.
Traders bringing food into RSF-held areas said they are sometimes denied access at army-controlled checkpoints, which chokes supply and hikes up prices. They also have to contend with paramilitary forces stealing their stocks in markets.
Electricity blackouts are another challenge, especially in areas where power is needed to pump water from the Nile. Ibrahim, the Sharg Alneel volunteer, said the lack of water has periodically suspended their kitchen work.
Other volunteers cited a lack of cooking gas as a problem, with too little supply and unaffordable prices. Some kitchens have been cutting down trees and using firewood as a substitute.
Volunteers also raised security as a critical challenge. Though RSF leaders have made statements supporting local humanitarian efforts, volunteers said they continue to be investigated and arrested based on spurious allegations that they are tied to the army.
A volunteer said the RSF closed down their kitchen鈥檚 operations after the kitchen published a statement condemning the paramilitary group鈥檚 violations against civilians. The volunteer said the kitchen is now keeping its activities 鈥渓ow profile鈥�: cooking inside people鈥檚 homes and only distributing food to the most vulnerable within its community.
Kitchens operating in areas held by the army and the de facto government also face security threats. These authorities see aid as a political and military resource, and are suspicious of volunteers receiving funds outside of a system they can control.
What Needs to Be Done
Going forward, Carter of the Norwegian Refugee Council called for donors to increase their financial flows to local response efforts and suggested they should adapt some of their policies so as not to drown volunteers in paperwork and processes.
鈥淚 think the point of this is not to require [mutual aid groups] to be NGOs but to find a model that supports them in delivering critical services in very difficult and dangerous parts of the country, [while] minimizing any bureaucracies or burden,鈥� he said.
With more resources, Hassan said the emergency response rooms would be able to set up local markets and bakeries across the region. For now, however, he said the groups are demanding that the warring parties allow volunteers to work safely, open humanitarian corridors for aid groups, and make progress on peace talks.
Saja, who receives support from the kitchens in Sharg Alneel鈥攐ne of the most populous parts of Khartoum鈥攕aid another meal a day would go a long way to improving people鈥檚 lives.
鈥淢any, many families are totally depending on the kitchens,鈥� she told The New Humanitarian. Without them, I could not even imagine what our lives in this conflict would look like.鈥�
*The names of all Sudanese sources quoted in this article have been changed because the warring parties threatened local volunteers.
Originally edited by Philip Kleinfeld. Global edition and Spanish translation by the Human Journalism Network team.
This story was (Switzerland) and is republished within the program, supported by the ICFJ, .
Inspiration in Your Inbox
Sign up to receive email updates from 猫咪社区!
