The Sudan conflict: What's really going on
On Monday, 17 February 2025, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees launched a joint appeal for US$6 billion – the biggest ever Sudan humanitarian appeal – to support close to 21 million people in Sudan and up to 5 million others – primarily refugees in neighbouring countries. Below, we highlight what is really happening in Sudan.
More than 12 million displaced
“I was carried on my children’s shoulders for 40 days in this wheelchair,” says Al-Sayed, 70, displaced by the armed violence in Aj Jazirah State in October 2024. “The people you see all around came on foot. Some walked for three days, others for a week, and some for 10 days. Some died on the streets from thirst, suffering, and exhaustion,” he says.
Some 12.4 million people are estimated to have been displaced across Sudan since April 2023, nearly 9 million of them internally. More than 3.3 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The displaced face gruelling journeys as they seek refuge, with danger lurking everywhere along the way.
In Gedaref, about 6 hours from Khartoum, near the Eritrean border, a former bus station has become an Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) settlement. The sprawling site hosts some 6,600 displaced people who arrived during the third wave of mass displacement from the Sinjar/Sannar region south of Khartoum in July of 2024.
The hardship doesn’t end with the journey; it continues upon arrival, with disease-spreading mosquitoes and cold nights that make survival even more difficult.
People are dying
The spectre of death hangs everywhere across Sudan. Shelling and airstrikes continue unabated, killing and injuring civilians, while attacks on health workers and facilities in the country are having a devastating impact. For example, on 24 January, a drone strike on the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in Al Fasher – the only functional public hospital with surgical capacity in the area – reportedly killed about 70 people and wounded dozens.
Famine confirmed in five locations
Hunger has reached historic levels, with nearly 25 million people facing acute food insecurity. Meanwhile, disease outbreaks are compounding the crisis, alongside worsening climate shocks.
Famine – a situation in which at least one in five households experience extreme lack of food and face starvation and destitution, resulting in extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition and death – has been confirmed in the eastern Nuba Mountains and North Darfur, where similar conditions are expected in five more areas through May 2025.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, estimates that 770,000 children aged under five will suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition – severe acute malnutrition – in 2025. Children in this condition are ten times more likely to die from disease than a healthy child.
A surge in gender-based violence
“My daughter’s 16-year-old friend was forced to marry a soldier to protect her family,” Amal* recounts, displaying a photo of the girl taken in her home.
This is not an isolated case: three of her daughter’s friends have been forced into marriage with soldiers. Gender-based violence has reached horrifying levels. More than 12.2 million women and girls, and increasingly men and boys, are at risk of gender-based violence across Sudan. This is 80 per cent higher than the previous year. Women and girls in particular continue to suffer abuses, including conflict-related sexual violence.
Diseases are spreading
Less than a quarter of health facilities are functioning in the worst-affected areas. Diseases are spreading, including cholera, dengue fever and malaria.
In August 2024, the Minaa El Bar site for the internally displaced, which was a former bus station, was hit with a deadly wave of cholera that infected more than 2000 people, all of whom had fled violence in the Khartoum and Aj Jazirah regions of Sudan.
The broken healthcare system has deeply affected people with chronic health conditions. Prior to the war, Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed, 40, worked as a teacher for visually impaired people in Khartoum. Now, having lost his livelihood and become entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance, Mohamed struggles to find medical services for his eye condition.
“My wife is blind, too, so there is no one with whom I can share the responsibility of raising our five children,” he says.
More than 17 million children out of school
“I wish I could return to school. For me and other children in this IDP [internally displaced persons] settlement, education has come to a halt since the conflict began,” says Ibrahim, 18, who was in 8th grade before the conflict.
Millions of children have fled their homes and are displaced in the country and across the borders, enduring months of uncertainty, trauma, and violence. More than 17 million children are out of school across Sudan, with over a million in limbo as national secondary certification exams haven't been held since 2023. Hundreds of schools across the country are serving as shelters for displaced people, further disrupting the education system.
UNICEF says the current situation in Sudan is a deepening children’s crisis, severely putting at risk the future of the country and heavily affecting the wider region.
Humanitarian response faces daunting challenges
Despite humanitarian assistance reaching many areas, severe access constraints, particularly in active conflict zones, and funding constraints continue to hinder aid delivery where it is needed most.
Funding from the OCHA-managed UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF) has ensured critical humanitarian support to the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict with much-needed health assistance, including sexual and reproductive services, nutrition, shelter, water, and protection services. At least 4.7 million people have been assisted by CERF, and 7.7 million people have benefitted from activities funded by SHF in Sudan.
However, needs remain immense. This year’s Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requests a record $4.2 billion, with the UN and partners aiming to reach 20.9 million people with urgent, life-saving assistance and services. Among them, 3.2 million people are receiving gender-based violence related services. Without funding, critical, life-saving programmes will be forced to shut down.