The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a nationwide livestock vaccination campaign in Sudan, targeting 9.8 million animals as conflict, displacement and food insecurity continue to place millions of rural livelihoods under severe pressure.
The 2026–2027 campaign is expected to reach 1.2 million livestock-owning households across all 18 states, making animal health a central component of efforts to protect food supplies and preserve productive assets in communities affected by the conflict.
Sudan’s livestock sector has become increasingly important as households struggle with disrupted markets, damaged infrastructure and reduced access to basic services following the conflict that erupted in April 2023. With livestock estimated at 115.4 million animals in 2025, cattle, sheep, goats and other animals represent a critical source of income, food and nutrition for agro-pastoral communities.
The latest campaign builds on an earlier FAO intervention that vaccinated 8.4 million animals between October 2025 and July 2026, benefiting an estimated 537,000 households, or about 2.7 million people.
The organisation estimates that livestock-related losses linked to the crisis have reached nearly $3 billion, while the conflict has severely disrupted veterinary services and weakened the systems responsible for disease surveillance, diagnosis and vaccination.
According to FAO’s Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Rein Paulsen, “one thing is clear Sudan’s farmers, herders and fishers are resilient.”
Rein Paulsen
“I have met people determined to rebuild their lives despite the challenges they continue to face. For many, livestock are their most valuable asset. For families in need of humanitarian assistance, livestock are also a vital source of nutritious milk.”
Safeguarding Livestock Amid Sudan’s Growing Food Crisis
FAO’s vaccination drive is designed to address the immediate animal-health risks while helping households retain the assets on which their livelihoods depend.
The campaign focus on common livestock diseases and will operate alongside the distribution of vouchers for concentrated animal feed and mineral salt licks to eligible livestock owners. The combined approach is intended to improve animal nutrition, sustain productivity and reduce the pressure on households already coping with displacement and economic disruption.
In 2025, FAO supported the importation of approximately 23 million vaccine doses and helped establish cold-chain systems, transportation arrangements and distribution networks for livestock-producing areas. The programme reached difficult-to-access communities in Darfur and Kordofan and, for the first time, used a cross-border supply corridor from Chad into Darfur to deliver vaccines.
The latest campaign will need to operate against the continuing deterioration of Sudan’s wider food system.
Agricultural production has been disrupted by fighting, population displacement, damaged infrastructure, market interruptions and rising costs associated with production and transportation. National cereal production has remained 22–25 percent below its average level over the past three years, adding pressure to households already facing limited access to food.
The strain on agriculture also creates a connection between livestock health and the broader humanitarian response.
Meanwhile, the organisation has supported farming communities with crop seeds and other agricultural inputs as part of efforts to sustain food production. During the 2024–2025 agricultural season, more than 832,000 vulnerable households across 15 states received over 8,000 tonnes of crop seeds.
That intervention contributed to an estimated 6.6 million tonnes of total grain production, highlighting the role agricultural assistance can play in preventing an even deeper deterioration in food availability.
Climate risks, however, are adding another layer of uncertainty to Sudan’s agricultural outlook.
Forecasts point to a rainfall deficit of between 30 and 40 percent associated with what is predicted to be the most significant El Niño event on record. A significant reduction in rainfall could further affect crop production, livestock nutrition and water availability, placing additional pressure on communities already weakened by conflict.
Drought-tolerant seeds and other agricultural inputs could therefore become increasingly important in helping farmers maintain production under harsher climatic conditions.
The overlapping pressures of conflict and climate change make the protection of agricultural livelihoods increasingly central to Sudan’s humanitarian response. Food assistance can address immediate needs, but protecting the productive assets that allow households to generate food and income can also influence their ability to recover.
FAO is also working across fisheries and crop production, reflecting the different livelihood systems operating across Sudan.
Yet the scale of the response remains constrained by funding shortages.
FAO’s current emergency and resilience portfolio in Sudan stands at $44.1 million against an appeal of $193 million under its 2026–2028 Emergency Response Plan. Only 11 percent of emergency agriculture requirements under Sudan’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan have been funded.
The funding gap leaves significant portions of the agricultural response exposed at a time when rural communities are confronting multiple shocks simultaneously.
FAO is therefore calling for additional resources to support animal health services, livestock feed, seeds, cash and vouchers, irrigation rehabilitation and anticipatory measures designed to prepare communities for potential climate impacts.
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