Stand up for Sudan

by Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw ISIK

Sudan is living through one of the gravest humanitarian emergencies of the twenty-first century. More than three years after fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), civilians continue to carry an extraordinary burden. War has displaced families, devastated essential infrastructure, disrupted agriculture and trade, weakened hospitals and schools, and left millions struggling to obtain food, clean water, medicine and protection.

The scale of the emergency is immense. The United Nations estimates that 33.7 million people — roughly two-thirds of Sudan's population — will require humanitarian assistance during 2026, with children accounting for around half of those in need. Sudan also remains at the centre of the world's largest displacement crisis.

Displacement has become one of the defining realities of the Sudanese conflict. Millions of people have been forced from their homes, sometimes repeatedly, as front lines and insecurity shift.Families have sought safety elsewhere within Sudan while millions of others have crossed international borders. UNHCR reports that more than 3.2 million people have fled Sudan to neighbouring countries, placing enormous pressure on communities and humanitarian systems across the region.

The crisis therefore cannot be understood solely as a Sudanese domestic emergency. It's a regional humanitarian crisis affecting countries including Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

For neighbouring countries already confronting poverty, food insecurity, displacement or political instability, receiving large numbers of people fleeing Sudan creates additional pressure on housing, health services, schools, water supplies and local economies.Yet borders cannot become barriers to humanity. People escaping violence must continue to have access to asylum, protection and humanitarian assistance.

Perhaps the most alarming dimension of Sudan's emergency is hunger. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns that the country's major food and nutrition crisis continues as the conflict enters its fourth year. For February–May 2026, an estimated 19.1 million people were projected to experience Crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity, although the inability to assess several areas of particularly serious concern means that the national figure does not capture the full extent of suffering.

The threat is particularly severe in parts of Darfur and Kordofan. The IPC has identified a risk of Famine in 14 areas across North Darfur, South Darfur and South Kordofan under a reasonable worst-case scenario involving intensified fighting and further restrictions on humanitarian access and commercial movement.

War produces hunger not simply because food disappears. Farmers are displaced from their land. Markets cease functioning. Transport routes become dangerous or inaccessible. Prices rise beyond the reach of ordinary families. Humanitarian convoys struggle to reach isolated communities.

Preventing famine therefore requires more than emergency food deliveries. It requires sustained humanitarian access and ultimately an end to the conditions of conflict that are destroying livelihoods.

Children are among those suffering most profoundly. UNICEF reported that at least 330 children were killed or injured during the first six months of 2026, with Darfur and Kordofan recording particularly high levels of child casualties. These figures represent reported cases and therefore may not capture the complete human cost of the conflict.

Malnutrition presents another enormous danger. The IPC estimates that approximately 825,000 children under five could suffer severe acute malnutrition during 2026, an increase from the previous year and substantially above pre-war levels.

Education has also been devastated. UNICEF reported in its May 2026 humanitarian update that more than eight million children remained out of school, with some of the most serious disruption occurring in Darfur and conflict-affected areas of Kordofan.

Every year that children remain outside education creates consequences extending far beyond the present conflict. Sudan risks losing part of a generation to displacement, hunger, trauma and interrupted schooling.

Protecting children must therefore mean more than keeping them alive. Children need safe shelter, nutrition, healthcare, education, family reunification, psychological support and protection from violence, exploitation and recruitment into armed groups.

Sudan's health emergency has developed alongside the conflict.Hospitals and clinics operate under extremely difficult circumstances, while displacement, damaged water systems and inadequate sanitation increase the risk of infectious disease.

UNICEF has documented concurrent outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue and hepatitis E, warning that limited health services, inadequate vaccination coverage and poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions have increased transmission risks.

These interconnected emergencies demonstrate why humanitarian crises cannot be divided neatly into separate categories. Hunger weakens immunity. Displacement increases exposure to disease. Unsafe water accelerates outbreaks. Damaged hospitals reduce access to treatment. Poverty makes medicines unaffordable.

One crisis reinforces another.Aid organisations continue to provide food, water, healthcare, nutrition programmes, education and protection despite insecurity and enormous logistical difficulties.Their ability to operate, however, depends upon safe and sustained humanitarian access.

Humanitarian assistance must never become an instrument of political or military pressure. Civilians requiring food or medicine should receive assistance regardless of which authority controls the territory where they live.

All parties to the conflict have obligations under international humanitarian law. Civilians must be protected, humanitarian personnel must be able to carry out their work, and humanitarian relief intended for civilian populations must be allowed to reach people in need in accordance with applicable international law.

The international community must consistently insist upon these principles.Even where humanitarian organisations can reach communities, inadequate funding restricts what they can provide.

UNICEF reported in its 2026 mid-year situation report that it had mobilised approximately US$351 million by June against its humanitarian appeal, leaving a 64 per cent funding gap. Despite those constraints, UNICEF reported reaching 1.3 million children with education services and providing mental-health and psychosocial support to hundreds of thousands of people.

Funding shortages translate into practical decisions with human consequences: fewer nutrition programmes, fewer medical supplies, reduced water services and less protection for displaced families.

Sudan therefore requires sustained international financing rather than attention only when particularly shocking events reach global headlines.Emergency assistance can save lives, but humanitarian organisations cannot resolve the political and military causes of Sudan's suffering.

A durable response requires diplomacy.International and regional actors should support credible efforts toward a ceasefire, civilian protection, humanitarian access and an inclusive political process capable of producing a sustainable peace.

Sudanese civilians must remain at the centre of that process. Sudan is more than its armed factions. Its future belongs equally to its children, women, displaced communities, workers, farmers, educators, medical professionals, civil society organisations and millions of ordinary citizens seeking security and dignity.

International diplomacy must therefore resist reducing Sudan's future to negotiations solely over military power. One of the greatest dangers confronting Sudan is international fatigue.

Wars elsewhere compete for diplomatic attention, humanitarian funding and media coverage. Yet human suffering cannot be ranked according to geopolitical visibility. Sudan's displaced families do not need temporary sympathy. They need sustained humanitarian assistance, protection and international engagement.

The world must support humanitarian organisations working inside Sudan and across neighbouring countries. It must protect refugees and displaced people. It must strengthen food, health, water and education programmes. It must insist on humanitarian access and the protection of civilians. Above all, diplomatic efforts must continue toward ending a conflict that humanitarian assistance alone can never solve.

Sudan possesses an extraordinary history, cultural inheritance and human potential. Its people should not be defined by war, displacement or hunger. Behind every humanitarian statistic is a person: a mother searching for food, a child waiting to return to school, a doctor trying to keep a clinic functioning, a farmer separated from his land, or a family carrying what remains of their lives across a border.

Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw ISIK

Geneva 18 August 2026

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