Sudan Humanitarian Crisis

According to UN human rights experts, “The displacement of farmers who can no longer cultivate their land has contributed to a vicious cycle of agricultural collapse, hunger, and escalating violence due to competition and scarcity of resources. As farms are destroyed, food supplies dwindle, pushing more people into famine.”

When hunger crosses the threshold into famine, approximately 1,000 people die every day, most of them children.

Where established humanitarian organizations can operate inside Sudan, they face disruptions from parties to the conflict. Where they can’t, local community kitchens and emergency response rooms (ERRs) have helped to feed people in need, but 80% of these organizations have closed due to recent funding shortfalls from foreign aid. The war has destroyed the economy, causing severe inflation, so even where food is available in markets, civilians cannot afford to purchase it. In displacement camps, the only food available is often flour mixed with sugar and water.  

The U.S. has cut 83% of its foreign aid, and what will happen to the $126 million already committed to Sudan for 2025 is unclear. Regardless, aid cuts have come at the height of Sudan’s humanitarian needs, worsening a dire situation. A third of the way into 2025, Sudan has raised only 10% of the funding requested in its humanitarian response plan.

Jose Lopez, head of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said, “The inability to prevent famine in Sudan represents a “collective failure, absolutely” of the political and humanitarian institutions that are supposed to protect people.” 

Hunger makes people, especially children, more prone to disease. A malnourished child is up to 11 times more likely to die than a well-nourished one.

As of April 2025, over 20.3 million people need urgent medical care. However, 38% of hospitals are nonfunctional in the worst affected regions; the rest are only partially functional. Cholera has claimed over 1,500 lives since the crisis began, with malaria, dengue and measles also spreading rapidly.

Additionally, there have been 156 attacks on healthcare facilities, causing hundreds of casualties.

In 2025, Sudan is projected to endure warmer-than-normal temperatures, which will negatively impact people, livestock and crops. Extreme heat will exacerbate existing food shortages and water scarcity.

Sudan is one of the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change. These vulnerabilities include seasonal rains becoming more unpredictable and increasingly frequent droughts. Land degradation, desertification and deforestation compound the consequences of climate hazards. 

At least 12 million people are at risk of gender-based violence (GBV), a number that has tripled since the beginning of the war, according to UN Women.

In a statement by the UN on Nov. 5, 2024, experts condemned the escalating violence against civilians in Sudan, as the ongoing conflict has driven the humanitarian crisis to catastrophic levels. “We continue to be deeply disturbed by the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, recently in Gezira State and more broadly during the conflict, and particularly by the RSF. This large-scale campaign, predominantly targeting women and girls, has been found to include rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and human trafficking under conditions of extreme violence that would amount to torture.”

“It is the first time in my life I have seen women who have been abused to that extent,” said Mohamed Refaat, head of the International Organization for Migration’s mission in Sudan.

There are many reports of women and girls committing suicide to avoid systematic rape and other types of violence. Should women and girls migrate either within or outside of Sudan, they face an extreme risk of sexual violence. Over 90% of women and girls who migrate towards the Mediterranean will be sexually assaulted or forced into sex work. 

As humanitarian access and aid shrinks, more children than ever need support in Sudan. Over 16 million boys and girls need protection against violence, hunger, disease and displacement.

According to UN News, “The situation is being compounded by a deadly combination of interlinked factors, such as a ten-fold surge in the number of grave violations against children, namely killing and maiming; abduction; recruitment and use in hostilities; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; and the denial of humanitarian access.”

Additionally, 90% of children are out of school.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan has exacerbated existing harmful coping mechanisms such as child marriage and reduced food intake. Sadly, an entire generation of Sudan’s children face the extreme physical, psychological and emotional repercussions of living through unimaginable trauma.

For more information on the background, history and issues that have brought Sudan to the current crisis, please see:

• UNHCR: Sudan crisis explained
• The Economist: Why Sudan’s catastrophic war is the world’s problem
• Council on Foreign Relations: Civil war in Sudan
• CDP: 5 things you need to know about the Sudan humanitarian crisis