On April 15th, 2023, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, resulting in the displacement of more than 8.6 million people, including internally displaced people (IDPs), asylum seekers and refugees. This conflict
exacerbated many of Sudan’s existing challenges, including ongoing conflicts, disease outbreaks, economic and political instability and climate emergencies.
Here’s what you need to know about the situation in Sudan, where people are fleeing and how you can help.
When did the crisis in Sudan begin?
Before the current conflict, Sudan had already been grappling with violence and displacement since the onset of the Darfur crisis in 2003. Sudan was home to more than 1 million refugees — the second-highest refugee population in Africa — most of whom were from South Sudan and Northern Ethiopia, with many fleeing conflicts in Tigray.
The recent fighting between the SAF and RFS occurred when Sudan was already experiencing its highest levels of humanitarian need in a decade.
The removal of long-time authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019 had initially sparked great optimism for a return to civilian rule in Sudan. But, a military coup two years later dissolved the transitional civilian government, triggering political and economic turmoil and reigniting intercommunal conflicts.
Sudan has also been heavily impacted by severe weather events linked to climate change, including floods and droughts. These events have adversely affected hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout the country, leading to crop and livestock destruction and exacerbating food insecurity for families.
Since the recent clashes began on April 15th, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. Half of Sudan’s population – some 25 million people – need humanitarian assistance and protection. The country is facing extreme shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel and nearly 18 million people are facing acute food insecurity — 5 million of them at emergency levels.
Where are people impacted by the conflict fleeing to?
The lack of basic necessities, combined with violence and uncertainty, has forced many people to flee their homes.
As of April 2024, one year since the crisis began, more than 8.6 million people have been displaced. This includes more than 6.5 million people displaced within Sudan and more than 2 million people who fled to neighboring countries Sudan crisis impact on women. Women and girls continue to pay a high price for the war in Sudan. Millions have been driven from their homes, and now the country is facing the worst levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Around 8.5
million people are on the verge of famine, including an estimated 203,000 pregnant women. Some 755,000 people, including 18,000 pregnant women, are already living in famine conditions.
The ongoing war has stripped women and girls of everything they need to survive – food, medical support and shelter. Less than a quarter of health facilities in provinces affected by the fighting are functional. Facilities have been destroyed, looted, and are struggling with staff shortages and an acute lack of essential medicines and supplies. Those that remain operational are overwhelmed by the influx of people seeking care, many of whom are internally displaced, straining the country’s health system to its very limits. Most women and girls in areas affected by conflict have no access to the reproductive health and protection services they desperately need.
The Specter of Famine Threatens the Sudanese:
Five million Sudanese face hunger in the coming months About five million Sudanese face hunger in the coming months in different parts of the war-torn country, according to warnings by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths.
In a memorandum to the UN Security Council, seen by Reuters, Griffiths pointed to catastrophic levels of hunger resulting from the effects of the raging conflict in the country, whether on its livelihoods or agricultural production, in addition to the destruction of its basic infrastructure.
The UN official also noted the disruption of trade flows in Sudan caused by the war, the crazy rise in prices, the obstruction of aid access, and large waves of displacement.
Griffiths said in the memorandum: “Without urgent humanitarian assistance and access to basic commodities… about five million Sudanese will slide into a catastrophic level of food insecurity in many parts of Sudan in the coming months.”
Griffiths warned of the possibility that many residents of West and Central Darfur could slide into these levels of hunger in light of the deteriorating security situation and the beginning of the dry season.
The UN official pointed out in his memorandum that cross-border aid from Chad to Darfur is a “vital lifeline.”
Griffiths pointed out that about 730,000 children across Sudan, including more than 240,000 in Darfur, are facing severe malnutrition.
Griffiths said: “Indeed, we have observed unprecedented rates of severe malnutrition in accessible areas.”
” The largest hunger crisis in the world “ The United Nations World Food Program warned that the war in Sudan threatens to lead to “the largest hunger crisis in the world.”
The war broke out in Sudan in mid-April last year, between the Sudanese army on the one hand and the Rapid Support Forces on the other.
The United Nations says that about 25 million people – half of the Sudanese population – are in need of aid, and that about eight million people have been displaced from their homes
