“Three years into this conflict, we are not just facing a crisis – we are witnessing the systematic erosion of a country’s future,” – said Luca Renda, UNDP Resident Representative in Sudan.
As of April 2026, the civil war between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has entered its fourth year. This brutal conflict is characterized by extreme, ongoing violence and grave human rights abuses against civilians, including torture, massacres, sexual violence, arbitrary killings and extortion. Both sides of the conflict are carrying out ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Consequently, Sudan faces the world’s worst displacement, protection and hunger crises. More than half the population requires humanitarian support.
In October 2025, the RSF captured El Fasher, a city in Darfur. Between 60,000 and 200,000 men, women and children were killed in a matter of just six weeks after a 18-month long seizure of the city, in which the RSF blocked food, medical supplies and other essential items from reaching civilians, causing mass starvation. This extreme pace of killing has not been seen since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
The U.S. has declared that the RSF and allied Arab forces are committing genocide.
However, as humanitarian aid dwindles, civilians remain remarkably resilient. Sudanese community-led emergency response rooms have received peace prizes and global recognition for their work, including from the Nobel committee in 2024 and 2025.
Key facts
- Approximately 41% of the population in Sudan is experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, while 14 areas across North Darfur, South Darfur and South Kordofan are at risk of famine.
- Estimates put the death toll between 150,000 and 400,000 people since the war began.
- On April 27, 2026, UNICEF issued a rare “Child Alert” for the children of Sudan, the first one in 20 years.
- Nearly 25% of the population has been forced to flee, with over 9 million civilians internally displaced, and another 4.4 million moving across borders.
- According to UNOCHA, “(The war)…has shattered essential infrastructure in conflict-affected areas, including water systems, schools and health facilities. Electricity blackouts and communication outages have severed critical lifelines, while markets have been significantly impacted by high inflation and broken supply chains.”
- Average incomes have dropped to a level last seen in 1992, and extreme poverty rates are worse than in the 1980s.
(Photo: A health clinic for Sudanese people displaced by conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Credit: USAID via Flickr)
Latest Updates
What we’re watching: Weekly disaster update, November 3
What we’re watching: Weekly disaster update, October 14
CDP launches a Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Fund
What we’re watching: Weekly disaster update, May 6
What we’re watching: Weekly disaster update, February 12
Famine, hunger and malnutrition
As of May 2026, famine conditions (IPC Phase 5) have been confirmed in some areas and are spreading, with more than 60% of the population acutely food insecure and millions facing severe or extreme hunger. More than 800,000 children under five are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a 7% increase from 2025.
Many households are surviving on just one meal per day, with some resorting to eating leaves or animal feed as agricultural systems and markets have been devastated by war. Women-headed households in Sudan are three times more likely to be food insecure.
Emergency Response Rooms are still operating in Darfur but are extremely limited in capacity, and humanitarian access remains severely constrained across Sudan.
Disease
As of May 2026, more than 40% of Sudan’s population requires urgent health care, and 37% of health facilities in the country are nonfunctional. Outbreaks of cholera, measles, malaria, dengue and polio are widespread, fueled by low vaccination coverage, poor sanitation and disrupted services.
At least 4.2 million people are acutely malnourished, increasing their vulnerability to illness and death, especially children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The crisis is compounded by attacks on health care, critical shortages of staff, medicines, supplies and hospital beds in addition to massive displacement.
Extreme weather
Sudan is one of the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, characterized by rising temperatures, drought, flooding and desertification. Land degradation and deforestation compound the consequences of climate hazards, driving food insecurity, large scale displacement and worsening living conditions across the country.
Women and girls
The number of women and girls requiring sexual violence support has quadrupled since the beginning of the war, according to UN Women.
There are many reports of women and girls turning to suicide to avoid systematic rape and other types of violence. Women and girls migrating within or outside of Sudan face an extreme risk of sexual violence. Over 90% of women and girls who have migrated towards the Mediterranean have been sexually assaulted or forced into sexual slavery. The crisis has also exacerbated existing harmful coping mechanisms, such as child marriage.
Additionally, the RSF systematically murders men and boys, often targeting specific ethnicities. Most civilians who escape El Fasher and make it to Tawila are women and girls. Men and boys are prevented from leaving the city, and if they escape, they are often killed on the journey to Tawila.
According to UN Women, “Almost all (99 per cent) of surveyed women-led organizations in Sudan report implementation challenges linked to funding shortages, impediments caused by authorities, and insecurity.”
Children
Over 17.3 million children need life-saving 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 into armed forces and groups and use in hostilities; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; and the denial of humanitarian access.”
About half of all schools in the country are nonfunctioning. However, as of May 2026, half of children are out of school, compared to 75% in September 2025. School is critical for children’s psychosocial wellbeing, and helps mitigate the risk of child labor, exploitation and child marriage, especially for girls.
Ethnic cleansing
The Geneva Council of Rights and Liberties has declared that the RSF and allied Arab militias are committing an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab populations, predominantly in Darfur. Thousands of civilians have been killed on the basis of ethnicity, and satellite imagery confirms the “systematic dismantling” of Masalit neighborhoods.
On the other side of the conflict, “…the (Sudanese) army treats civilians from western Sudan as collaborators with the RSF, leading to ethnic cleansing campaigns,” stated Human Rights Watch. Several reports describe SAF and allied militias executing civilians from Darfur and South Kordofan, driven by the perception of their tribal loyalties.
Additional resources
For more information on the current crisis in Sudan, please see:
- LinkedIn: The State of Mutual Aid in Sudan
- Refugees International: Accelerating Localization
- Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition: We are the system now
- CDP blog post: Solidarity as a verb
- Devex: Are Sudan’s volunteers the future of food aid?
- 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 social post: 5 things you need to know about the Sudan humanitarian crisis
The Sudan humanitarian crisis needs a multi-faceted response. Funders can:
- Support locally-led action by national NGOs and mutual aid groups.
- Support vulnerable populations, including women, children, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees through protection and provision of essential services.
- Address the needs of host communities in neighboring countries.
Urgent needs
During any complex humanitarian emergency (CHE), urgent needs always include shelter, food, WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), emergency health care, education, protection of at-risk populations and case management. As the crisis becomes more protracted, issues include restoration of livelihoods, mental health, cash assistance, and preventative and chronic disease management.
Mutual aid groups and Emergency Response Rooms
Grassroots mutual aid organizations have created Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) to provide health services, food and safe spaces for women and children in communities where humanitarian organizations no longer have access. In September 2025, ERRs in Sudan won the Norwegian Rafto Foundation prize for human rights, and were nominated in 2025 for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Local groups are currently the only aid providers able to reach those struggling to survive in much of Sudan. However, with recent cuts to foreign aid, about 80% of ERRs have been forced to close, with dire consequences for the two million civilians they supported.
Donors can support mutual aid groups, ERRs, and local Sudanese NGOs to help provide direct aid to communities living in war and build ERR capacity. Funders unable to direct grants to non-501c3 organizations can work through an intermediary, such as CDP’s pooled Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Fund.
The Funders for Mutual Aid in Sudan surpassed its original Commitment to Action from the 2024 Annual Meeting to channel at least $2 million in emergency grants by the end of 2024 and generate a minimum of $4.5 million more from peer philanthropies by the end of 2026. At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2025 Annual Meeting in New York, the Coalition expanded its commitment and announced a goal of at least $16 million in direct and flexible emergency grants to vetted mutual aid groups in Sudan by the end of 2026.
Cash assistance
Experts recommend monetary donations to organizations responding to disasters. This allows on-the-ground agencies to direct funding to the most significant areas of need, support economic recovery and quickly re-establish access to necessities.
Almost 4% of Sudan’s gross domestic product (GDP) came from international remittances in 2023, amounting to approximately $1 billion USD every year. The crisis in the country means that data may not be up-to-date; however, the fact that ransoms are being paid via remittances is an indication that they are being used quite regularly at present.
In Sudan, where the conflict has severely curtailed physical movement and banking operations, digital banking applications have become a lifeline for many. Since the conflict, lack of cash has led people to utilize digital wallets to cover necessities, pay for travel and receive money from abroad (most recently, for ransom payments). Financial applications, however, suffer from frequent telecommunication and power breakdowns.
CDP recommends using cash assistance as an intervention and recovery strategy. Direct cash assistance to families gives them flexibility and choice, ensuring that support is relevant and timely. Cash-based approaches to disaster recovery also give people the freedom to choose how they rebuild their lives and provide a pathway to economic empowerment.
Through CDP’s Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Fund, donors can support broad efforts that help address the critical needs of at-risk groups, prevent and address famine, and build longer-term solutions. Donors may also support the life-saving efforts of local mutual aid groups, addressing the needs of at-risk communities amid limited resources. They can designate contributions to the Funders for Mutual Aid in Sudan.
Contact CDP
Philanthropic contributions
If you have questions about donating to the CDP Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Fund, want to learn more about the Coalition, need help with your disaster-giving strategy or want to share how you’re responding to this crisis, please contact development.
(Photo: Homes destroyed by the violence between Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, April 2023. Photo courtesy of Patty McIlreavy.)
We welcome the republication of our content. Please credit the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.
Resources
Hunger
Due to growing inequality, climate disasters and the spread of violent conflict, hunger is rising throughout the world. According to UNOCHA, “Hunger and malnutrition are spreading faster than our ability to respond, yet globally, a third of all food produced is lost or wasted.”
Violence Against Women and Girls
Every 10 minutes*, a woman is killed by an intimate partner or family member. Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence – is a significant violation of human rights. When violence overlaps with disasters and crises, it becomes even more complicated. Until violence against women and girls is adequately addressed, women’s inequality will persist.
Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
A complex humanitarian emergency (CHE) is a protracted crisis in a region that often includes political conflict, climate disasters and poverty. Consequently, mass suffering from problems like disease outbreaks, gender-based violence, hunger and displacement usually results.