Sudan has entered a fourth year of a devastating conflict that human rights organisations and aid agencies describe as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with global attention increasingly consumed by instability elsewhere while the death toll climbs, displacement spreads, and famine conditions advance across multiple regions of the country.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti) has forced an estimated 13 million people from their homes. At least 59,000 people have been killed, while more than 11,000 remain missing, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Nearly two-thirds of the population — approximately 34 million people — now require urgent humanitarian assistance, a figure that reflects the sheer scale of a crisis that has outgrown the international system’s capacity to respond.
The Human Cost
In Darfur, entire districts have been reduced to ruins. Witnesses and aid organisations have documented mass killings and sexual violence on a scale that has drawn comparisons with previous conflicts that the international community failed to prevent. Famine conditions are spreading, and projections suggest that up to 800,000 people could suffer from severe acute malnutrition in the coming months if humanitarian access does not improve significantly.
Only 63% of Sudan’s health facilities remain operational, according to the World Health Organization, as disease outbreaks including cholera spread through overcrowded displacement camps. Attacks on healthcare workers and infrastructure have further degraded a system that was already fragile before the conflict began.
In neighbouring Chad, more than 900,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed the border, with hundreds more arriving daily. Camps are overcrowded, resources stretched, and aid organisations warn that without a significant increase in funding, basic necessities cannot be guaranteed for those who have fled.
The International Response
A conference hosted in Berlin in April 2026 aimed to mobilise humanitarian support and push for a ceasefire. But the event drew immediate criticism from Sudan’s government, which described it as external interference in the country’s internal affairs — language that has consistently been used to deflect international pressure for a political resolution.
Diplomatic initiatives led by the United States and regional African bodies have failed to produce a ceasefire, and attention has increasingly been diverted by crises in the Middle East and Europe. Human rights groups say the combination of great power distraction and the Sudanese government’s sensitivity to outside pressure has created a vacuum in which the conflict can continue without meaningful international consequence.
A Symbol of Resilience
In Nairobi, Sudanese refugees and human rights activists gathered to mark the anniversary of the conflict with a symbolic tree-planting event. The choice of tree was intentional: among Sudanese communities, the tree represents hospitality and shade — a place where women sell tea, children play, and conversations happen. It is how many displaced Sudanese remember home.
“I am from Sudan, I came here in Nairobi seven months ago,” said refugee Saria Mubarak. “I really want the war to stop. I want to go home. I miss Sudan, I miss my home. I miss my family and my neighbours. I really want the war to stop.”
For Sudanese watching from displacement camps, from ruined neighbourhoods in Khartoum, and from refugee settlements in Chad, those words carry the weight of a crisis that the world has largely stopped paying attention to. As the fourth year begins, the silence around Sudan grows louder than the gunfire.
Source: Africanews, AP, Amnesty International, Reuters, WHO