diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6a48c1a327..925c1c2cef 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Fixes
+
+- Handle native NDK init failure by checking return code and throwing an IllegalStateException to disable NDK integration early. This prevents the SDK from assuming a successful NDK initialization when the underlying native init failed.
+
 ### Dependencies
 
 - Bump Native SDK from v0.11.2 to v0.11.3 ([#4810](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java/pull/4810))
diff --git a/sentry-android-ndk/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/ndk/SentryNdk.java b/sentry-android-ndk/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/ndk/SentryNdk.java
index 9d6d64a123..c45309c690 100644
--- a/sentry-android-ndk/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/ndk/SentryNdk.java
+++ b/sentry-android-ndk/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/ndk/SentryNdk.java
@@ -74,7 +74,11 @@ public static void init(@NotNull final SentryAndroidOptions options) {
         }
 
         //noinspection UnstableApiUsage
-        io.sentry.ndk.SentryNdk.init(ndkOptions);
+        final int initResult = io.sentry.ndk.SentryNdk.init(ndkOptions);
+        if (initResult != 0) {
+          throw new IllegalStateException(
+              "Failed to initialize Sentry NDK. Native init returned code " + initResult);
+        }
 
         // only add scope sync observer if the scope sync is enabled.
         if (options.isEnableScopeSync()) {