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Sudan Emergency Regional Refugee Response December 2023 - End of Year Report

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Situation Overview

Nine months on, the magnitude of displacement within Sudan and into neighbouring countries continues to increase since the devastating conflict broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in mid-April 2023. As the conflict has continued to evolve, the Sudan situation has become one of the largest and most acute protection crises in the world. By January 2024, more than 7.8 million people had been forcibly displaced, with some 6 million newly internally displaced in Sudan and more than 1.6 million refugees, returnees and asylum seekers having arrived in the neighbouring countries of the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

These countries were already hosting large refugee, migrant and internally displaced populations before the crisis. The Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan hosted at least 800,000 Sudanese refugees before 15 April 2023. The new refugee arrivals to Chad added to the more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees who were in a protracted situation in eastern Chad for some 20 years. In South Sudan, 76 per cent of the population were already estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance, in addition to more than 290,000 Sudanese who arrived pre-April 2023. In Ethiopia, more than 20 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance, in addition to almost 50,000 Sudanese refugees who arrived pre-April 2023. Egypt has historically hosted many Sudanese and had the second-highest number of Sudanese refugee arrivals in 2023.

The impact of the conflict beyond Sudan’s borders, including on the commercial side, such as the disruption of existing trade and supply chains, has caused inflation, increased the cost of the humanitarian response, and created hardship for vulnerable host communities. An example was the impact on fuel prices in South Sudan that had risen significantly, by some 266 per cent in Renk, Upper Nile State and 223 per cent in Yida, Ruweng Administrative Area – both important border crossing points into South Sudan.

The influx into countries of asylum has put pressure on national systems, in particular health. Disease outbreaks in Sudan, including measles, dengue, and cholera, exceeding 5000 cases in November 2023, posed risks to neighbouring countries. Ethiopia reported a cholera outbreak in the Kumer refugee settlement in August among new arrivals, and South Sudan had its first cholera case in Renk in December.

The alarming levels of global acute malnutrition among refugees in multiple locations were a concern in South Sudan and Ethiopia in 2023 which had suffered food cuts due to funding shortfalls and in Ethiopia due to aid diversion concerns.

Food insecurity and malnutrition is expected to worsen with the introduction of a 50 per cent food ration cut for refugees in Sudan as of January 2024 and with the response in Chad facing a pipeline break for refugee food rations as early as April 2024 under the current funding scenario.

The ongoing crisis in Sudan and its impact on neighbouring countries have highlighted the challenges for education systems to respond to emergencies. Host countries were struggling with challenges to provide education to national students, with high out-of-school rates, and had limited capacity to enrol Sudanese refugee children who had lost several months of school. In 2023, the education response in host countries was limited in scope, focused on the educational needs of new arrivals, hampered by a lack of funding, and unable to address the pre-crisis low enrolment rates for Sudanese refugee children. Some of the gaps applied to refugees and nationals, namely insufficient number and qualification of teachers, inadequate school facilities, etc. In addition, refugee students had their own unique needs such as language and curriculum transition from the home to the host country system, and the need for psychosocial support for the resumption of healthy development and learning.

In many locations, shelter and WASH facilities were inadequate to respond to the increased needs of the new refugee population. For example, WASH services in Ethiopia for 20,000 refugees in the Metema transit centre and Kumer settlement in Amhara region fell significantly below the standard with only one latrine available per 100 people.
Moreover, the daily water allowance per person was also below standard. Inadequate WASH services significantly increased the risk of diseases.

Humanitarian programmes in these countries are chronically underfunded and need international support to sustain their generosity as host countries. The 2023 Regional Refugees Response Plan (RRP) was just 38 per cent funded.