Sudan’s brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has intensified across North Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile state, forcing thousands of civilians to flee during planting season.
Since fighting erupted between the two factions and their allied militias in April 2023, neither side has managed to establish full control over the country.
The SAF controls Sudan’s north and center, including the capital Khartoum, while the RSF maintains its grip over the western Darfur region and parts of the south.
The United Nations and international aid organizations have described the conflict as one of the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crises, with the estimated death toll ranging from 40,000 to 250,000 people.
More than 12.4 million Sudanese have been displaced, both within the country and across its borders into neighboring nations, as reliable casualty figures remain nearly impossible to obtain.
The aid organization Action Against Hunger has warned that 24.6 million people are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity across the country.
“An estimated 825,000 children younger than 5 suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026, while a total of 4.2 million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are thought to be acutely malnourished,” said Jan Sebastian Friedrich-Rust, executive director of the German section of the NGO.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network has warned that several areas, including displacement camps in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, are expected to face Catastrophe, the most severe classification under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system.
Fabrizia Falcione, the Sudan representative of the United Nations Population Fund, said the crisis continues to worsen even as the international resources available to address it shrink.
“I recently visited the displacement camp Tawila and I am still struggling to find the words to describe what I witnessed,” Falcione said, noting that the camp’s population, larger than that of Frankfurt, Germany, relies on just one hospital capable of performing Caesarean sections.
The 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan calls for $2.9 billion but remains only 41% funded, with just $1.2 billion received from international donors so far.
Climate shocks are compounding the man-made disaster, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warning that extreme heat and heavy flooding are both worsening conditions on the ground.
Hager Ali, a Sudan researcher at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, told DW that “a massive heatwave brought power cuts of up to 12 hours per day in some regions,” while RSF scorched-earth tactics and environmental destruction have left riverbeds and fields barren.
Sudan’s fertilizer supply collapsed from 450,000 metric tons to only about 50,000 in 2026, according to Ali, with a concurrent diesel shortage driving up the cost of running agricultural equipment and transporting humanitarian goods nationwide.
Sudan relies on imported fertilizer and diesel shipped through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, both of which have faced serious disruption from Iran and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels operating in Yemen.
The International Food Policy Research Institute warned in October that staple food and fuel prices in Sudan rose sharply in September 2026, adding further pressure to an already desperate population.
Observers have long argued that the war will not end until foreign backers stop supplying arms, with the SAF officially supported by Egypt, Turkey, Russia, and Iran, while the United Arab Emirates is alleged to be the RSF’s primary backer, a claim Abu Dhabi denies.
The UN Security Council extended the existing arms embargo only on Sudan’s Darfur region until December 11, dropping calls for a broader nationwide embargo that would have included drones.
Ali noted that as of 2026, drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian casualties in Sudan, making the country one of the biggest theaters of drone warfare in the world.
Sudan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, opposed expanding the embargo, arguing it would disproportionately limit the SAF while leaving the RSF largely unaffected, given that the RSF sources weapons through trafficking networks, private military contractors, and regional traders rather than official channels.
