A network of community kitchens in Sudan - a crucial lifeline for millions of people caught up in the civil war - is on the verge of collapse, a report says.
The warning from aid organisation Islamic Relief comes after a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine conditions were spreading in conflict zones.
The locally run kitchens have operated in areas that are difficult for international humanitarian groups to access, but are facing closure due to neglect, shortages, and volunteer exhaustion.
Sudan's people have been brutalised by more than two years of war after fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It has created what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with estimates that more than 24 million people are facing acute food shortages.
Most of the kitchens will close if nothing changes in six months, with maybe one or two surviving in each area, one volunteer is quoted by the Islamic Relief report as saying.
These local initiatives often operate alongside social networks known as Emergency Response Rooms that have filled gaps left by collapsing government services and limited international aid.
Financial fragility is the most pressing issue the kitchens face. They are now funded mainly by the Sudanese diaspora, after the USAID cuts earlier this year.
The situation is worst in the besieged cities of el-Fasher in the western Darfur region and Kadugli in South Kordofan state. Both are largely cut off from commercial supplies and humanitarian assistance.
In el-Fasher, the kitchens were reduced to serving animal fodder by the time the city finally fell to the RSF last week.
Worse, reports indicate that some members of community kitchens have been attacked or even killed amidst the chaos of the conflict.
The Emergency Response Rooms have been hailed as a model for UN-led reforms that emphasise shifting power and resources closer to the people most affected by crises. This year they were nominated for a Nobel Prize.
But after nearly three years, the volunteers find themselves increasingly on their own, facing burnout and danger. They have to work with whoever is in control in their area, and have become targets when territory changes hands.
Their biggest fear is that in six months, the community will be completely exhausted and unable to sustain these critical lifelines.
