Sudan: World's largest humanitarian crisis in terms of displacement. 12.7m forcibly displaced. 25m in famine

Presser | United Nations 
Friday, 11 April 2025 - full copy:

Sudan: World's largest humanitarian crisis in terms of displacement

Press Conference by Shaun Hughes, World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Crisis, on the situation in Sudan.

Senior World Food Programme (WFP) official in Sudan Shaun Hughes said, “By any metric, this is the world's largest humanitarian crisis in terms of displacement,” adding that “four out of every five people displaced are women and children.”

Hughes briefed reporters remotely from Nairobi today (10 Apr) on the situation in Sudan.

He said, “12.7 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Over eight million people displaced internally, and four million across borders arriving to countries that are already facing high levels of hunger and humanitarian needs.”

In terms of hunger, the WFP official said, “this is the only place in the world where famine is currently confirmed, and only the third famine to be classified this century.”

Hughes continued, “The scale of what is unfolding in Sudan threatens to dwarf much of what we've seen over previous decades. In the Zamzam camp alone, which has been under siege for several months. There are over 400,000 people.”

The Regional Emergency Coordinator added, “Across the country, nearly 25 million people, or half the population, face extreme hunger. Nearly five million children and mothers are acutely malnourished.”

“This is a man-made crisis, man-made because it is driven by conflict, not by drought or floods or earthquakes, and man-made because of the obstruction of access to humanitarian assistance by parties to the conflict,” the WFP official stressed.

Hughes highlighted that WFP’s goal is to scale up to reach seven million people by mid-year, “focusing primarily on those 27 areas that are classified as in famine or risk of famine.”

He continued, “we need to be able to quickly move humanitarian assistance to where it is needed, including through frontlines, across borders, within contested areas, and without lengthy bureaucratic processes.”

“We need to re-establish offices and staff presence across all areas of the country, including the Darfur and Kordofan states, so that we can be close to the people we serve and monitor assistance and the situation as it unfolds. We need to be able to obtain visas for staff and custom clearances for goods and equipment,” the WFP official added.

He stressed that humanitarian agencies alone don't have the influence to negotiate this, “it requires the world to pay attention and coherent and tenacious engagement from the international community, particularly countries that have influence on those waging war.”

The Regional Emergency Coordinator for Sudan Crisis, World Food Programme (WFP):

For the next six months in Sudan, in order to reach the objective of assisting seven million people, WFP has an 80 percent funding gap amounting to $650 million and another $150 million shortfall to take care of people that are fleeing across borders into Chad, into South Sudan, into the Central African Republic and elsewhere.

“Without funding, we're faced with the choice to either cut the number of people receiving assistance, or to cut the amount of assistance that people receive,” Hughes said.

He explained that the cut is already happening. “This month, we've reduced rations in famine areas to 70 percent of what people need, and in areas that are at risk of famine to 50 percent. The funding we need is not only for food assistance, but also for the joint services that we provide to the broader humanitarian response, including humanitarian air services and logistics services,” Hughes said.

Asked about the funding gap, the WFP official said, “none can be attributed to the broader cuts in US foreign assistance. Fortunately, all allocations that the US government has made to Sudan remain effective, for which we are grateful.”

“I think more broadly that the outlook globally for funding of humanitarian assistance is quite disastrous due to a number of changes in the approach by donors,” he concluded.

Transcript

Follow along using the transcript at video: https://youtu.be/UwQIXSImTGs

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One in three Sudanese are displaced, one in six internally displaced persons globally are from Sudan

Press Conference | United Nations

Monday, 14 April 2025 - full copy:

Sudan: Massive violation of Human Rights 

A UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official said that one in three Sudanese are displaced, and one in six internally displaced persons globally come from Sudan.

UNHCR’s Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Mamadou Dian Balde spoke to reporters today (14 Apr) via video link, on the humanitarian needs inside Sudan and in neighboring countries, as one of the largest displacement crises globally with nearly 13 million people forcibly displaced.

Balde said, “Countries have been hosting refugees. Regional countries, neighboring countries have not closed their borders. They've been receiving the refugees.”

“Communities that don't have enough have shared what they have. And that's really the true spirit of solidarity. And this is what we see happening in the region,” he highlighted

The UNHCR official also said, “as we speak today, over 70,000 have reached Uganda. Uganda has problem of its own, and Uganda has thankfully opened and kept these borders open despite receiving 1.8 million refugees as we speak, they have added to that 70,000 Sudanese refugees and, Libya over 200,000.”

Balde also stressed that only 10 percent of the Regional Refugee Response plan is currently funded.

He called for the support for the 111 partners who are part of the Plan.

The UNHCR official thanked the various partners who have contributed, stressing that however with only 10 per cent of the plan funded reaching the fifth month of the year, “the level of support to have food, to have water, to have protection services, education, shelter, housing, this level of support is going to be extremely, extremely low.”

Balde explained that request of the Regional Refugee Response plan is 1.8 billion US dollars to be able to serve 4.9 million refugees and immediate hosts in neighboring countries.

He added that the 111 partners that are coordinate aid, a third of them are national partners, “people who are closer to the realities, in addition to international NGOs as well as national NGOs and the UN organizations,” the UNHCR official said.

Balde reiterated the need for ceasefire stressing that us that the Sudanese refugees want “a normalcy so that they can return home and take care of themselves.”

Transcript

Follow along using the transcript at video: https://youtu.be/oPAQ8yRx9Z0

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The London Conference on Sudan 15th April 2025

Presidential Palace Khartoum 2012 by the author

Sudan - can the UK's "progressive realism" help?

Sir Nick Kay

Former Ambassador

April 11, 2025

The world’s worst humanitarian crisis and one of its most dangerous, complex, bloody wars gets a moment in the spotlight in London on 15 April. Foreign ministers and senior officials from international organisations will meet at Lancaster House to discuss Sudan. After two years of conflict, the UK is taking a diplomatic initiative that many believe long overdue given its historical ties and current responsibility at the United Nations Security Council to hold the pen on Sudan resolutions.

But is the conference likely to lead to anything positive for the Sudanese people? 

Expectations are understandably low. The de facto Sudanese authorities led by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have criticised the UK for not inviting them to the conference. They object strongly to the UAE being invited because they consider it an ally of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and therefore a party to the conflict. On the ground both the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have pledged to continue the war until they achieve complete victory. No impartial observer thinks that possible. As the war drags on, Sudan suffers from political polarisation, fragmentation and continued external meddling.

It's too easy to look the other way and too easy to think this is just a messy, protracted struggle that will continue inconclusively. But the immediate future may not be a continuation of the last two years. 

Red warning lights are flashing. Sudan’s neighbour South Sudan is teetering on the brink of civil war and the Sudanese conflict is playing its part in destabilising South Sudan and vice versa. Other neighbouring countries are also vulnerable to fall-out from Sudan: Chad in particular. With any expansion of war in the region, the humanitarian consequences and political risks of spiralling conflict magnify. Within Sudan itself the increased presence of Islamist extremists, armed militia and potentially international terror groups is another flashing light. Geopolitical tensions - already existing - may escalate. The Sudan Armed Forces have been ostracised by western powers and have entered agreements with Russia and Iran in their search for arms. Both countries see establishing a presence on Sudan’s Red Sea coast as a prize. But such a move would be highly provocative for others, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Over the last two years efforts to broker ceasefires have failed, only limited progress has been made on improving humanitarian access and efforts to bring about a comprehensive political settlement between the various actors - the two military forces, political parties, armed movements and civil society actors - have all led to nought. Many have tried, including the UN, AU, IGAD, the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey but none has succeeded. These “track 1” efforts have been complemented by multiple “track 2” initiatives led by NGOs and peace foundations. But so far the willingness to give as well as take in any negotiation is sorely missing.

Proposals

Absent political will by the protagonists and their external backers, what can be achieved in London? 

Limited but important steps can be agreed in three areas: the humanitarian response, political process and international cooperation. 

On the humanitarian front, the key challenges remain both funding and access. In April 2024 at a conference in Paris, donors made generous pledges totalling USD $2 billion. Much of that has yet to be disbursed. London is not a pledging conference, but should be the opportunity for partners to live up to their past commitments and renew their determination to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance for the 11 million Sudanese forced to flee their homes— food, shelter, medicines and healthcare at a minimum. The challenges for humanitarians are enormous: Sudan’s domestic political and ethnic complexity compounded by the regional tensions with and between Sudan’s neighbours necessitate an enhanced international aid effort coordinated by a senior UN figure. 

A political process remains the missing element and in London agreement may be possible on how to deal with the most immediate challenge as well as on the essential elements for a future process. Since the SAF now control the capital Khartoum again, it is likely they will press ahead with their own political roadmap and appoint a civilian government subordinate to the military to take forward a transition towards eventual restoration of democracy. 

How should the international community respond to this - reject, ignore, embrace, or shape it? Given the risk of Sudan being partitioned into two warring regions - Darfur and the South controlled by the RSF and the North, East and centre being controlled by the SAF - no SAF-imposed roadmap is going to be the final word. Not only will it not include the RSF and its supporters, but also many of the political actors who supported the 2019 revolution, which overthrew General Bashir’s military rule, will have nothing to do with the SAF roadmap. So the challenge for the international community is to try to work within the new political reality on a temporary and tentative basis. The aim should be to shape the SAF’s actions in order to move towards a credible inclusive political transition. The London conference could agree criteria by which such a political process will be judged. Key questions will be: how inclusive is the process and what genuine efforts are made to ensure inclusiveness of all Sudan; how are civil and political rights protected; how will security, justice and reconciliation be achieved; what are the criteria for selection of members of a transitional administration; what real authority will the administration have over economic and budgetary affairs; what are the provisions and realistic timetable for an all-inclusive Sudanese national dialogue? Above all, how firmly enshrined is the commitment to full democratic and civilian rule in Sudan, for which Sudanese men, women and youth struggled and died over the years? 

These are difficult questions that have defied easy answers since 2019. Helping Sudanese actors address them will require substantial and coordinated international action. 

The third way the London conference could contribute is by setting out agreed principles and a framework for the international community. The Sudan crisis is of such a complexity and international nature that it requires a creative and collaborative approach. The conference could propose that an international panel of mediators be appointed, led by the African Union but comprising additional senior figures from beyond Africa. Rank is important and ideally the panel would be at former head of state or government level and mandated by a UN Security Council resolution. The panel’s focus should be on advancing a comprehensive political settlement. Early consultation with the SAF, RSF and Sudanese civil and political actors about the terms of reference will be essential. The conference could agree who should take forward this consultation and a time frame.

Conclusion

Foreign Secretary David Lammy convened the conference after seeing at first hand the devastating impact of the war on Sudanese women and children on the Chad-Sudan border. Just because the Sudan war is complicated and far from our TV screens, we cannot in all conscience ignore it. This is a moment to put the Foreign Secretary’s doctrine of “progressive realism” into action.

 [These are the personal views of the author and do not represent the views of any organisation with which he is associated.]

CMI — Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation 

Diplomats without Borders 

View original: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sudan-can-uks-progressive-realism-help-sir-nick-kay-nc3be/

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Related 

Sudan Watch - 19 Nov 2010

British Ambassador in Khartoum Nicholas Kay is blogging the drama and scale of the change taking place in Sudan

The British government's Foreign & Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO, has started a blog about the work of the British Ambassador to Sudan. The blog is authored by Nicholas Kay CMG, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Sudan. Mr Kay (pictured below) arrived in Khartoum to take up his role as HM Ambassador to Sudan on 29 May 2010. Here is a copy of his first two blog posts followed by several related reports.

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2010/11/british-ambassador-in-khartoum-nicholas.html

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Sir Nicholas Kay KCMG
British Ambassador to the Republic of Sudan 2010 to 2012
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nicholas-kay

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Sudan: Hundreds feared dead in RSF Janjaweed militia attack on El Fasher N. Darfur & IDP camps

"THE Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023, launched "coordinated ground and aerial assaults" on Friday on El-Fasher and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

In recent weeks, the paramilitaries have stepped up their attacks on El-Fasher — the only state capital in Darfur still outside their control — after the army recaptured the national capital Khartoum last month."

Read more in report from FRANCE 24

By FRANCE 24 with AFP

Dated Saturday, 12 April 2025; 22:22 - here is a full copy:

Hundreds feared dead in Sudan as RSF launches attack on famine-hit camps

The United Nations reported on Saturday that more than 100 people, including 20 children, are feared dead after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched attacks on the besieged city of El-Fasher and two nearby displacement camps in Darfur. 

This handout image courtesy of Maxar Technologies shows heavy damage at the entrance to the Zamzam camp near North Darfur's besieged capital El-Fasher on February 13, 2025.
© AFP via Maxar Technologies

More than 100 people, including 20 children, are now feared dead in Sudan following paramilitary attacks on the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher and two nearby famine-hit camps, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023, launched "coordinated ground and aerial assaults" on Friday on El-Fasher and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

In recent weeks, the paramilitaries have stepped up their attacks on El-Fasher — the only state capital in Darfur still outside their control — after the army recaptured the national capital Khartoum last month.

Early reports from the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group in El-Fasher, put Friday's death toll at 57, with 32 civilians killed in El-Fasher and 25 in Zamzam.

However, the army said Saturday that 74 civilians were killed and 17 wounded in El-Fasher alone.

Activists said Friday the full extent of the damage in Zamzam remains unclear because of internet shutdowns and communications disruptions.

The Sudanese Organisation for the Protection of Civilians said Saturday the dead included nine humanitarian workers operating a hospital in Zamzam, run by an international non-governmental organisation.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami condemned their deaths.

"The colleagues from an international non-governmental organisation were killed while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational in the camp," she said in a statement.

"This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago.

"I strongly urge those committing such acts to immediately desist."

In a statement on Saturday, the RSF dismissed a video purportedly shared by activists showing civilians killed in Zamzam.

The paramilitary group condemned the footage as a fabricated production, labelling it a "desperate attempt to criminalise" its forces.

A local advocacy group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, said the attack on Zamzam resumed on Saturday morning, with clashes and heavy gunfire heard for hours.

The camp was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year.

By December, famine had also spread to two nearby camps — Abu Shouk and Al Salam — and is expected to hit El-Fasher itself by May.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since it broke out in April 2023. Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes and breaches of international humanitarian law.

View original: https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20250412-hundreds-feared-dead-in-sudan-as-rsf-launches-attack-on-famine-hit-camps-paramilitary-un

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Related reports

View original: 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abdallahhussain3_sudan-news-activity-7317237019854671872-gFS9

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View original: 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/relief-international_relief-international-is-devastated-to-report-activity-7316838235903586304-txhY

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View original:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abdallahhussain3_sudan-news-activity-7317225284187922432-xI59

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View original: 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abdallahhussain3_sudan-news-activity-7316867294666620928-Y7AS

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DTM Sudan Flash Alert - Sunday, 13 April 2025

Um Kadadah (Um Kadadah town), North Darfur

On 10 April 2025, DTM field teams estimated that approximately 3,500 households were displaced from Um Kadadah town of Um Kadadah locality, North Darfur due to clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and armed tribal groups. Field teams reported that households were displaced to other locations within Um Kadadah locality, North Darfur. View original with map here.

Al Fasher (Zamzam IDP camp), North Darfur

Between 11 and 12 April 2025, DTM field teams reported the displacement of approximately 3,190 households from Zamzam IDP Camp in Al Fasher locality, North Darfur due to heightened insecurity. Households were displaced to other locations within Al Fasher locality and to locations across Tawila locality in North Darfur. The situation remains tense and unpredictable. View original with map here.

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DTM Sudan Flash Alert - 14 April 2025

Al Fasher (Zamzam IDP camp), North Darfur

Between 13 and 14 April 2025, DTM received multiple reports of large-scale displacement from Zamzam IDP camp. Based on initial estimates, DTM field teams reported that between 60,000 and 80,000 households were displaced from Zamzam IDP camp due to heightened insecurity. The majority of households remain displaced within Al Fasher locality, while others were displaced to locations across Tawila and Dar As Salam localities, North Darfur. These figures represent preliminary estimates only. 

View original with map: https://mailchi.mp/iom/dtm-sudan-flash-alert-al-fasher-zamzam-idp-camp-north-darfur-update-077

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Infographic from OCHA - Thursday, 10 April 2025

Sudan: Humanitarian Access Snapshot: Al Fasher and Zamzam (As of 8 April 2025)

https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-humanitarian-access-snapshot-al-fasher-and-zamzam-8-april-2025

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Special Report: Friday, 11 April 2025

Confirmation of Ground Assault on Zamzam IDP Camp 

https://files-profile.medicine.yale.edu/documents/1c711637-a7c0-4e06-a03b-df4139dbbe78

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Special Report: April 2025 by Prof. Dr. Volker Perthes, Dr. Wibke Hansen

Hunger in Sudan: A Human-Made Catastrophe

Looting, arson, blockades - the warring parties use hunger as a weapon and caused the food system to collapse. In the past two years, the greatest humanitarian crisis the world is experiencing at present developed in Sudan.

https://www.welthungerhilfe.org/global-food-journal/rubrics/crises-humanitarian-aid/hunger-in-sudan-a-man-made-catastrophe

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