While the global spotlight often shines on international issues like Iran’s tensions and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, Sudan endures as a significant yet underreported humanitarian and displacement crisis.
Since hostilities flared in 2023, the turmoil in Sudan has forced over 14 million individuals from their homes, with nearly 34 million requiring crucial humanitarian aid. This constitutes a staggering 10% of the world’s humanitarian demand, according to figures from the International Rescue Committee.
Alan Boswell, the Project Director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, informed News Media, “The conflict in Sudan has emerged as the world’s largest humanitarian challenge, escalating into a regional conflict involving all neighboring states and several Middle Eastern powers.”
Boswell continued by highlighting a critical issue, stating, “World leaders persist in neglecting this conflict, delegating responsibilities to subordinates. This strategy has consistently failed to address the crisis effectively.”
In the southern Kordofan region, near El-Obeid, women and children line up to receive free food at al-Mohayra camp for displaced individuals, a poignant scene captured on June 29, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
The United Nations says that some 19.5 million people are experiencing acute hunger, and 4.5 million people have fled the country.
The U.S. also recently imposed an additional round of sanctions against the Sudanese Armed Forces for allegedly using chemical weapons in 2024 in violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Sudanese government denied the allegations.
The Trump administration has made significant efforts in trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, as well as bring Israel’s war against Gaza to an end. The administration is also trying to uphold a shaky ceasefire that was agreed with Iran to halt the war that began on February 28.
“For three years, we have warned that Sudan was on the brink of catastrophe, and those warnings have gone unanswered,” said International Rescue Committee Country Director Richard Data.
Sudan’s recent outbreak of civil war, following years of coups and credible accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, persists under the radar.
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Members of Sudanese Armed Popular Resistance Force take part in a military parade for fresh graduates, in Al-Qadarif state, in eastern Sudan on May 20, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
The civil war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as “Hemedti,” leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two had been in an uneasy alliance ruling the country following the 2019 overthrow of Sudan’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power since 1989. Together, the generals staged another coup in 2021, toppling the interim civilian government that had been in power after the fall of Bashir.
While both the Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF are accused of committing atrocities, recent reports have highlighted the brutality of the RSF.
A major focus of the deteriorating conditions has been in El-Obeid in North Kordofan state, where an escalating hunger crisis is plaguing over 100,000 displaced people in camps throughout the city.
“What we need to do is really now to plan for the scale-up beyond the 100,000 people that we have been supporting,” said World Food Programme Sudan Country Director, Abdallah Alwardat.
Members of the Sudanese army’s Special Mission Forces batallion in the Northern State hold a parade in Karima city on May 19, 2024. Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. (AFP via Getty Images)
El Fasher in the Darfur region is another major flashpoint, where the RSF took control in October 2025 and killed more than 6,000 people in the initial siege of the city.
A recent July report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights revealed widespread acts of sexual violence against women and girls, some as young as 12, including reports of mass and gang rapes committed by the RSF.
The RSF is also accused of abduction, with survivors describing incidents of girls and women being beaten, having their hands tied behind their backs, and being driven away in a Land cruiser.
Sudanese displaced people gather at the Zam Zam refugee camp outside the town of El-Fashir in the Darfour region of Sudan, during a visit by U.N. officials, on July 1, 2004. The U.N. humanitarian aid and refugee agencies appealed Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, for $4.1 billion in international support for embattled civilians in Sudan amid signs that some may be dying of starvation after nearly a year of war there between the forces of rival generals. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo, File)
The United Nations and other human rights groups have accused the RSF of perpetrating ethnically targeted attacks and concluded that at least three components of genocide have been overwhelmingly met, including deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy a group in whole or in part.
A U.N. report from September 2025 found that the Sudanese Armed Forces have also committed war crimes and attacked civilian populations and infrastructure. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces targeted civilians with perceived affiliations to the enemy, executing, torturing and raping victims.