Sudan

After years of protracted crisis, Sudan plunged into a conflict of alarming scale in mid-April 2023 when fierce fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out initially in the capital Khartoum, but quickly expanded to other areas across the country. 

The current bout of violence and insecurity has resulted in high numbers of civilian casualties, extensive damage to critical infrastructure and facilities as well as large-scale displacement, with over 7.4 million people forced to leave their homes in search of safety within and outside Sudan. Together with the 3.8 million internally displaced persons, from past internal conflict, Sudan currently faces the largest internal displacement crisis in the world and the most significant child displacement crisis, with more than 3 million children displaced inside and outside the country.

Nearly one in three people in Sudan is acutely food insecure, while the already-fragile health system is in tatters, with looming disease outbreaks, including an alarming cholera outbreak, as well as dengue fever, measles and malaria.

While the level of received funding in 2023 was modest compared to the unprecedented scale of needs, the humanitarian community did its utmost to address urgent priorities, reaching five million people with some form of humanitarian assistance.

In 2024, every second person in Sudan (24.8 million people) will need humanitarian assistance. While this overall figure remains on par with estimates in 2023, the “catastrophic” severity of needs has been observed now in 17 localities (in comparison to 14 localities estimated in May 2023) almost half of which are in the Darfur region. Severity of needs in this case was primarily driven by widespread and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

The possible evolution of the crisis remains highly unpredictable with crossline movement of staff and supplies experiencing increasing obstacles. Civilians, particularly women, children and girls, will continue to bear the brunt of the crisis if no lasting political solution is in sight.

The 2024 humanitarian response requires US$2.7 billion to accelerate the scale up of lifesaving and protection assistance and avert a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation for 14.7 million people.

The response plan for 2024 intends to reinstate activities that seeks to restore safe and unhindered access to critical basic services and livelihood opportunities, which were paused in April 2023. This will help prevent further erosion of people’s coping capacity among the most vulnerable and lay the foundation for recovery in the hope of an improvement in the situation. 

The response covers the entire country, however it prioritizes the critical needs of the most vulnerable, particularly those displaced and hosting communities.