As of November 2024, half of Sudan requires immediate humanitarian aid, facing what the UN’s humanitarian chief describes as an “invisible crisis”. While 25 million Sudanese are in need of immediate assistance, the world has barely taken notice with attention fixed on other major conflicts such as Gaza and Ukraine.
Displaced women cue to receive food at the UN transit center in Renk near the border crossing into South Sudan. Photo credit: Jok Solomun/Reuters
The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting over territory broke out between the state’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. Over the past year and a half, the Sudanese have been the victims of horrific crimes including sieges, sexual assaults, mass poisonings, forced displacement, and mass killings. In many instances, civilians have been directly targeted, and both sides have been accused of using starvation as a weapon. The World Food Programme (WFP) has declared Sudan to be in a state of disaster due to famine, and many have resorted to extreme measures such as eating peanut shells just to survive.
The crisis has been amplified due to the difficulties in delivering life-saving resources. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that efforts persist despite the immense challenges including crossing rough terrain, armed checkpoints, and conflict zones. In order to gain access to the areas where the need is greatest the UN has had to negotiate with the army chief and de facto ruler of Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The RFS recruits soldiers from across the country. Photo Credits: Hussein Malla
The SAF army chief has announced on X (previously Twitter) that he has granted the UN access to three additional regional airports and more supply hubs to deliver aid. The opposition, the RSF, has also increased its support of humanitarian efforts and recently granted permission to the WFP to deliver supplies to communities within their controlled territory. This includes the ZamZam camp which holds half a million people and has been in a state of famine for the past four months.
Sudanese Refugees in Chad queue to receive aid from the WFP. Photo Credit: Jacques David/WFP
The warring parties are also accused of using sexual violence as a weapon, this heinous crime has been so prevalent that the UN has described it as “an epidemic” in Sudan. In response, apart from nutritional aid, critical reproductive health aid has been sent by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), including protection supplies to support safe births and the clinical management of rape.
There are also increasing fears of genocide in the Darfur region where the RSF controls the majority of the territory. This will not be the first time genocide has taken place in Darfur, with the memory of the 2003 genocide against non-Arab minorities still fresh. Just over 20 years ago 400,000 people lost their lives and now the UN Fact-Finding Mission gives reason to believe this crime against humanity is being repeated. They alleged that paramilitary forces have committed war crimes, including rape, sexual slavery, kidnapping, recruitment of minors, looting, and pillaging with particular cruelty against the Madalit minority El Geneina, who have been attacked based on their ethnicity.
Sudan remains divided with no end to the conflict in sight. Now with the rainy season coming to an end, fighting has begun intensifying pushing the prospect of a cease-fire further from reality.
Cover image: A mother and her son are among the eleven million people who have been displaced in Sudan’s civil war. Photo Credit: Mohamed al Ibrahimi Ismaldeen/ICRC
