Attachments
The unraveling of the world’s largest humanitarian disaster from the Sahel to the Red Sea
Two years into Sudan’s brutal war, the humanitarian catastrophe has engulfed the entire country, spilled over across the region, and shows no signs of abating. Thousands continue to be killed, starved and raped as violence forces millions to leave their homes throughout Sudan and across borders. Since breaking out in Khartoum in April 2023, the armed conflict quickly spread and escalated into the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis. All key indicators turned scarlet over the course of the past 24 months:
- Highest number of People in Need ever recorded : For the first time in the history of modern humanitarian response, a single country reaches over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. That’s 3 in every 5 people living in Sudan.
- Highest number of internally displaced in the world with 11.5 million people forcibly displaced inside Sudan, including 8.5 million since the start of the war. Combined with over 3.7 million refugees and returnees in neighboring countries, more than 12 million people have fled violence in the past 2 years, making it one of the largest displacement crises post-World War II.
- Highest number of people in emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, with over 600,000 people living in famine, and 8 million others on the cliff edge.
Beyond the statistics, civilians inside and outside Sudan face harrowing hardships. While some suffering can be measured, much of it remains unseen, endured in silence, with no records or witnesses. Besieged by warring parties, large chunks of populations are out of reach. Amidst sweeping hunger and displacement, women and girls are also the target of horrific sexual violence used as a weapon of war.
This report aims to provide snapshots, through testimonies, key figures and visuals, of the humanitarian disaster unfolding across the region, which also collides with an unprecedented and colossal funding crisis. While the war in Sudan was already testing the limits of humanitarian response, the ability of humanitarian actors to provide lifesa - ving aid to some of the world’s most vulnerable has been shaken to its core by the abrupt collapse of funding streams — all amounting to a perfect storm for victims of the conflict.