Three years into a war that has displaced more than 11 million people and killed tens of thousands, Sudan is marking the grim anniversary of its conflict with a new wave of violence that shows no sign of abating. According to the United Nations, nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes in the first three months of 2026 alone. The UN describes Sudan as home to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, issued a stark statement on the eve of the conflict’s third anniversary, lamenting that the international community has failed to meet the test of Sudan. His words carried the weight of a crisis that has received a fraction of the global attention given to other conflicts. The war, which erupted in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has created a humanitarian catastrophe of almost incomprehensible proportions.
The use of drone strikes has become a defining feature of the conflict in recent months. Near-daily aerial attacks have disrupted life across Sudan, particularly in the southern Kordofan region and in RSF-controlled areas of the west, including Darfur. Both sides have deployed drones sourced from multiple countries, turning civilian infrastructure into targets and forcing millions to flee repeatedly.
Nearly 34 million people now need humanitarian support. Hunger is rising as the lean season approaches, hundreds of thousands of children are acutely malnourished, and millions have been deprived of education entirely. Women and girls face systematic brutal violence that UN officials have described as a weapon of war.
A donors’ conference in Berlin this week aims to revive faltering peace talks and mobilize aid. The UN’s 2.9 billion dollar appeal for Sudan this year is currently only 16 percent covered.
For the Sudanese people, survival has become a daily calculation. The risk of wider regional instability is high. Three years of failure have left a country bearing immense promise in ruins.