The first official multidimensional poverty survey in Sudan showed that 82.8 percent of the population were living in harsh conditions even before the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, an indicator reflecting the scale of challenges facing the country before it entered the biggest humanitarian crisis in its modern history.

Suffering and hunger etched on the face of a Sudanese woman at Al-Hamaniya camp for displaced people in South Kordofan, July 7, 2026 (AFP)

The survey, released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, revealed that the multidimensional poverty index stood at 0.441, while the intensity of poverty reached 53.3 percent, meaning that on average the poor suffered from more than half of the deprivations measured by the index. The survey for the first time adopted the multidimensional poverty methodology, which measures deprivation in the areas of health, education, living standards and employment through 14 indicators, instead of merely measuring income levels.

The results showed that deprivation of health services represents the greatest manifestation of poverty, with 97.3 percent of the population suffering from poor access to healthcare, followed by sanitation services at 86.9 percent, then cooking fuel at 64.9 percent, making the health sector the largest contributor to the rise in the poverty index.

Geographically, Darfur and Kordofan states recorded the highest poverty rates, with Central Darfur topping the list, followed by East Darfur, then South Kordofan, West Kordofan and South Darfur, while Khartoum and the Northern State had the lowest levels of the index, with the report warning of the fragility of conditions in them and the possibility of large numbers of people slipping into poverty if exposed to any shocks.

A Sudanese girl refugee from the Darfur region at Tulum refugee camp in eastern Chad (Reuters)

The survey also revealed a wide spread of extreme poverty, with more than three-quarters of the population of East and Central Darfur states living in severe multidimensional poverty, while the proportion exceeded 70 percent in South and West Kordofan and South Darfur, reflecting the widening development gaps between the country's regions. The Central Bureau of Statistics confirmed that the survey results, implemented in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, represent the last baseline before the war and will serve as a reference for measuring the impact of the conflict on poverty and development levels in the coming years.