Sudan is plunging into a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, a crisis set to engulf over 20 million people within weeks. International agencies are calling it the world’s most severe emergency – one that illustrates a profound global reluctance to shield the most vulnerable and that demands immediate diplomatic attention.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that over 24.6 million people, about half the country’s population, face acute food insecurity. The Programme says it needs $658m for its operations up until February 2026 alone. ‘A protracted famine is taking hold. [It is] the only place in the world at this level of hunger – and without humanitarian assistance, hundreds of thousands could die,’ the WFP said in a statement. It added that some 637,000 people, the highest number anywhere, face catastrophic levels of hunger.

Many refugees describe a country that has fallen into chaos where supply routes are cut, farmlands abandoned or burned, and harvests disrupted. Access to fertiliser and seeds is limited. All the while, bandit-like attacks, especially by the RSF, continue. During these, property is confiscated and homes looted, forcing even more people to flee. 

The refugees say the situation gets uglier by the day as the RSF attacks civilians with drones in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Refugees outside the UNHCR headquarters in Egypt tell stories of extreme violence during their flight to the borders with Egypt.

El-Fasher, a major city in Sudan and the capital of the state of North Darfur, has become a critical hub in the ongoing civil war. Here, a shortage of medical supplies has forced doctors to resort to desperate measures. With no access to gauze, medical staff are reportedly using mosquito nets to dress the wounds of patients. The city’s remaining hospitals are overwhelmed, receiving an average of 90 new casualties each day from the relentless shelling by the RSF, who are continuing their devastating siege, cutting off vital supplies and access to care. As a result of this dire situation, approximately 300 people have already undergone amputations because their injuries festered due to the lack of proper medication and vaccines, doctors have told local media.

The International Organization for Migration reported that even in Khartoum, which has seen some relative calm after the SAF took over and to where some people have begun to return, the situation is precarious. Homes are damaged, clean water and electricity are scarce, and the risk of cholera is ever-present. RSF drone attacks routinely cause power outages, casting doubt on plans to reopen Khartoum’s airport in October.

Limited international action

Even though the fighting could destabilise the entire Horn of Africa and complicate the issue of cross-border migration, the international community has made only lukewarm attempts at mediation. 

A US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire followed talks in Jeddah and briefly paused hostilities before fracturing, leaving negotiations suspended for weeks. Amid the stalemate, the UN’s impact has been limited, while key regional actors such as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) trade bloc have maintained a notably subdued diplomatic approach. While Washington wants to restart the reform process that was happening before the war, its aim is mainly to reintegrate Sudan and have the country sign a peace deal with Israel as part of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords, rather than making a full-fledged diplomatic endeavour to finish the conflict.

Sudan, a country of nearly 52 million people, faces a complex internal situation made worse by outside intervention. The RSF has a large social and ethnic base and has become the country’s biggest employer. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known by his nickname Hemedti, and his allies are deeply tied to Sudan’s lucrative and opaque gold trade. UN reports say Sudanese gold is smuggled to Dubai and to Egypt, for example. Hemedti’s RSF has been fighting in Khartoum while setting up parallel formal administrative functions in states such as West Darfur, much like the dual government situation found in Libya. 

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan has reported to the UN Human Rights Council that both the SAF and RSF are responsible ‘not only for direct and large-scale attacks against civilians, but also for the extensive destruction of essential infrastructure for survival.’ In September, the Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, said that both sides had carried out atrocity crimes. In one RSF facility, for example, dozens of detainees have died since June after being tortured and denied food and medical care, while the independent rights expert highlighted that in SAF-run detention facilities, ‘civilians were also subjected to torture.’ His report noted that ‘executions, torture, and rape have become a daily horror for many communities in the war-torn country.’

The actions of both sides make it difficult to identify a faction that, going forward, will respect human rights and international law.

Despite two and a half years of conflict marked by blatant war crimes, there has been a shocking lack of outside diplomatic solutions or any international mechanism for accountability. As with other current conflicts, without international action to hold the perpetrators to account, the suffering of Sudan’s civilians is unlikely to stop any time soon.

Emad Mekay is a freelance journalist and can be contacted at emad.mekay@int-bar.org

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