Sudan 2024: Worsening humanitarian crisis, famine and foreign interference
Despite international mediation efforts, Sudan's civil war has continued throughout 2024, deepening the humanitarian crisis.
As Sudan enters the final weeks of 2024, the country remains trapped in a cycle of conflict, humanitarian crisis and political uncertainty, with the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continuing to devastate the country.
The war, which erupted in April 2023, has displaced millions of people, killed hundreds of thousands and left countless others suffering from hunger and in need of urgent assistance.
The country had been embroiled in political turmoil since the ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. The civilian-military transitional government that replaced Bashir’s rule collapsed after army commander Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his then-ally Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who heads the RSF, staged a military coup against their civilian partners in October 2021.
After rival forces reached an agreement in December 2022 to pave the way for a democratic transition in Sudan, a dispute emerged between Burhan and Dagalo over the integration of the RSF into the army and over who would assume leadership of the military, culminating in the deadly clashes.
Battle for control
The war intensified throughout 2024, with both the SAF and RSF engaging in fierce battles across various regions, including in the capital Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan.
The RSF, which emerged in 2013 from the notorious Janjaweed militia used by Bashir to suppress the rebellion in Darfur, continued to expand its territory and influence across Sudan. As of December, it controlled most of the Darfur region, with the exception of el-Fasher, the capital city of the state of North Darfur, where the fighting has escalated in the past year.
The paramilitary forces also extended their control over al-Gezira state, considered Sudan’s bread basket, South Kordofan and several areas in Khartoum. The army still holds the northern parts of the capital as well as several nearby areas including the White Nile, Blue Nile and Gadarif states.
The SAF, meanwhile, maintains control in the north and east of Sudan, including the Red Sea state and its capital city of Port Sudan, which serves as the army’s de facto capital.
The fighting in Khartoum and North Darfur has intensified in the past weeks as the two parties continue to exchange airstrikes and heavy artillery fire, killing dozens of civilians.
“We are alarmed by the recent attacks on markets and civilian infrastructure in North Darfur and Khartoum, which claimed at least 64 civilians this week,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango said in a Dec. 13 statement.
Devastating humanitarian toll
The toll on Sudan’s civilian population has been devastating as access to life-saving aid has been repeatedly blocked by the battles on the ground and fighters from both sides.
UN agencies estimate that nearly 26 million people, or about half of Sudan’s population, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The number is expected to further rise and reach more than 30 million people in 2025 amid worsening food insecurity, according to the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview.
Famine is also looming, with about 3 million people already facing acute hunger across Sudan, according to UN agencies. In March, the World Food Programme said the war in Sudan could trigger “the world’s largest hunger crisis.”
In August, the UN-backed Famine Review Committee officially recognized famine at the Zamzam refugee camp near el-Fasher in North Darfur, where around half a million people are sheltering.
An official declaration of famine is rare and serves as a wake-up call to the international community to increase funding for aid agencies. On Dec. 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced an additional $200 million in US humanitarian aid for Sudan that will include food, shelter and health care.
News Wrap: What does WFP's large-scale surge in food aid mean for the people in famine and famine risk areas across war-torn Sudan such as: Zamzam, Abu Shouk, and Al Salam IDP camps in North Darfur?
Find out here - https://t.co/F7SNwWJdQO#Sudan pic.twitter.com/aTUz7HU1nj— WFP Media (@WFP_Media) December 18, 2024
The announcement came during a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan. Addressing the session, Edem Wosornu, the director of operations and advocacy at the UN humanitarian agency, lamented the “horrendous human toll” in Sudan.
“Millions stalked by the threat of famine in the world's largest hunger crisis. Sexual violence rife,” Wosornu warned. “This is a crisis of staggering scale and cruelty, one that demands sustained and urgent attention.”
The health system is overwhelmed, with many hospitals destroyed in the fighting and medical supplies scarce. Diseases such as cholera and malaria have spread among the population, exacerbating an already fragile public health situation.
The war has also caused what UN officials describe as the world’s largest displacement crisis. As of November, more than 11.5 million people had been displaced by the war. Nearly 8.5 million of them have fled to neighboring countries like Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, according to data from the UN refugee agency.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the war varies widely, as many deaths are unregistered. The World Health Organization has put the number of dead to more than 20,000, while the United States put the number as high as 150,000.
In a report released last month, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group said as many as 61,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the first 14 months of the war in Khartoum state alone.
Reports of ethnic violence and human rights violations, including indiscriminate and direct attacks against civilians, schools and hospitals, committed by both sides have abounded in the past year. Human Rights Watch documented in a report published in May evidence of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the RSF in West Darfur state.
THE WORLD IS SILENT
The current civil war in #Sudan:
Arab media reports that the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, fighting against the Sudanese army, carried out a mas*sacre in which 104 civilian residents of the village of Wad a-Nora, south of the capital Khartoum, were killed.… pic.twitter.com/WbqxEsEXBC— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 6, 2024
Foreign interference
The civil conflict in Sudan has also been marked by growing foreign interference amid numerous reports that foreign actors like the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Russia were providing both warring sides with weapons, fueling the war.
In a July report, Amnesty International said it found evidence of weapons and ammunition from China, Russia, Turkey and the UAE as well as Serbia and Yemen, in some cases in violation of a UN arms embargo covering the western Darfur region.
According to the report, the UAE is one of the major suppliers of weapons to Sudan. The Sudanese government has repeatedly accused the Arab Gulf state of providing arms and other forms of support to the RSF.
In a more recent report published in November, Amnesty said it identified French-manufactured military technology incorporated into Emirati-made weapons used in Sudan’s ongoing civil war.
In January, a report by a five-member panel of researchers appointed by the UN Security Council documented cargo flights allegedly transporting weapons from the UAE to the RSF in Darfur and other parts of Sudan via the Chadian town of Amdjarass near Sudan’s western border.
Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied the accusations.
The White House informed US senators this week that the UAE gave the Biden administration assurances that it is not providing weapons to the RSF and will not do so in the future.
In a letter dated Dec. 18, White House coordinator on Middle East policy Brett McGurk stated, “Despite reports we have received … the UAE has informed the administration that it is not now transferring any weapons to the RSF and will not do so going forward.”
McGurk added that the Biden administration will provide an updated assessment to US lawmakers about the UAE’s compliance by Jan. 17.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s military has reportedly received weapons and drones from Iran and Russia. A Dec. 18 Bloomberg report alleged that Iran has delivered weapons and dozens of drones to the Sudanese army while Russia has sold millions of barrels of fuel and thousands of weapons and jet components to the army. A Sudanese tribal leader fighting alongside the military interviewed by the news outlet said these contributions have helped bolster the army’s capabilities.
Bloomberg also cited two Sudanese intelligence officials and four Western officials as saying that both Iran and Russia are in talks with the SAF to establish military bases in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
According to the sources, these negotiations have gained traction in the past weeks after both Iran and Russia suffered a series of setbacks in Syria following the fall of their ally Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Peace efforts
As the brutal war continues to rage, 2024 has seen multiple attempts to end the fighting between the RSF and SAF, to no avail.
The latest such attempt was in August, when the United States and Saudi Arabia co-hosted high-level peace talks in Geneva. Despite international pressure, the SAF boycotted the meeting, while the RSF sent a delegation. The meeting ended with no agreement.
UN special envoy for Sudan Ramtane Lamamra is expected to visit Port Sudan on Dec. 21, when he will meet with officials to discuss the international and regional efforts to end the war, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry confirmed to the local Sudan Tribune news outlet.
Sudan’s neighbors have sought mediating roles in the Sudanese crisis, fearing a spillover into their territories. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hosted Burhan in February for talks on the efforts to end the war.
Libya has repeatedly expressed its readiness to mediate a solution to the crisis over the past months. Also in February, Burhan headed to Tripoli, where he met with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognized government.
Prior to the Sudanese army leader’s visit to Libya, Dbeibeh had spoken over the phone with Dagalo about the need to bridge the differences between the Sudanese parties in order to achieve peace and stability in Sudan.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-member African trade bloc, has also been leading mediation efforts to end the conflict. However, Sudan suspended its membership ahead of peace talks in Uganda in January. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said at the time the decision was in response to the bloc inviting Dagalo to attend the meeting in Kampala, a move it described as a violation of Sudan’s sovereignty.
