Sudan: What’s Happening Now?
Sudan:
A Neglected Crisis
While the world has its eyes on Gaza and Ukraine, in Sudan, a crisis that began two years ago rages on.
More than 600,000 refugees from Sudan have fled to Eastern Chad since April 2023. The new arrivals, mostly women and children, arrive in poor health, often with only the clothes on their backs, traumatized and suffering from physical or gender-based violence.
What’s happening in Sudan is nothing short of a crisis. A widespread civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces forced more than 8.6 million people to leave their homes in its first year. Thousands have been killed. Health services are practically nonexistent. More than 24.6 million people across Sudan—more than half of the population—are now experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity. Famine is imminent: Some people are so hungry they’re rolling up balls of dirt and eating them.
About 25 million people – including over 14 million children – need help, and they need it now. Plan Canada is helping with our Children in Crisis Response Fund, which provides assistance to Sudanese refugees living in camps in eastern Chad by supporting children’s education with schools and the recruitment and training of teachers.
Mohammed Qazilbash, Plan Sudan’s country director, has worked in five war zones, but none like Sudan. He says it’s become the worst human-made humanitarian disaster in generations.
“If assistance is not provided at scale, 2.5 million Sudanese people will die by the end of this calendar year,” Qazilbash said in 2024. “The heaviest coffins are the smallest.”
Children didn’t start the war, but they are suffering the most, according to the Canadian ex-pat and humanitarian with more than 25 years of experience. He told us about the abhorrent atrocities taking place like the rape of teenage girls being used as a weapon of war and diseases from the medieval era re-emerging in children because 85% of health facilities aren’t operating. That’s on top of the catastrophic famine and displacement levels the world hasn’t seen since World War II – all of which could have been prevented.
“I think it’s a neglected crisis,” Qazilbash says. “We have neglected the people of Sudan.”
As the days go by without the world’s support, he sees people there losing hope. Yet, he also sees the tremendous determination and optimism of his fellow humanitarians and the survivors of Sudan. One of his colleagues has hosted 14 people in her two-bedroom flat for six months.
Selfless people like her help him believe we can turn this tide around. “We need a united effort to ensure that Sudan does not remain neglected. The world can’t afford the total collapse of Sudan because the crisis will only ripple across Africa.”
Stories from the next generation in Sudan
Adan, 10
Adan heard gunfire and bombs when she and her family were trying to escape the conflict in Sudan.
“I started crying,” Adan said. “I was so scared. I don’t want any child to experience this.”
She and her grandmother found safety in a refugee camp in South Sudan. Here, she sleeps on a mat on the ground, bordered in by walls made of old clothes.
“I used to sleep on a bed, watch cartoons on TV, but now all these things changed,” she said. “It is very difficult here. I miss my life.”
Last year, Adan’s father was killed in the conflict in Sudan. Her mother died when Adan was just a baby. Now her grandmother, Fatma, 75, is struggling to keep them alive.
“We normally beg for food from other people,” Adan said. “We have not eaten today, because there is no food. We need food.”
— Adan, 10, who fled to South Sudan because of conflict
“I want the war to stop so I can go back home.”
Marian, 15
“Every day when we heard the gunshots and saw the smoke and dust from the fighting, it was disturbing and frightening,” said 15-year-old Marian about the early stages of the conflict in Sudan.
Then her home burned down.
Marian and her family ran for their lives – for five months. “We looked for safer places to stay,” she said. “The future is dark for us. We have no place to move further from this shelter [set up by Plan International], which makes us very sad.”
— Mohammed Qazilbash, Plan Sudan country director
“Ordinary life doesn’t exist anymore.”
Jacklyn, 12
“There was no time to carry anything. We came with what was on our body,” said 12-year-old Jacklyn. She and her family had a perilous journey to South Sudan, including sleeping outside under a tree. Now, Jacklyn is struggling to cope with her new surroundings in a camp for people who have become refugees.
Schools in Sudan have been closed for nearly two years.
— Jacklyn, 12
“I want the war to end so we can go back home. I want to go back to school.”
Sarra, 20
Sarra left her home with her grandmother, mother, sisters and their children and spent almost a year running from the violence in Sudan. Sometimes they lived in displacement camps in the country. But when the conflict didn’t stop, Sarra and her family decided to cross into Chad. They walked for almost a month and were stopped repeatedly, attacked and robbed of the few personal belongings they had. It was during this journey that Sarra witnessed her sister die.
“It hurts me so much to think about it,” Sarra said. “I saw my sister lying in her own blood… If only I could have helped. If only I could die to save my sister and the child she was carrying. I would have chosen to exchange my life for hers.”
— Dr. Unni Krishnan, Plan International’s global humanitarian director, after a recent visit to Chad, where Sudanese people have taken refuge after fleeing from violence
“I met several Sudanese refugee children who were malnourished and suffering from severe exhaustion. They were too weak to play and spent most of their time sleeping.”
When you become the people you’re trying to help
Plan International staff reflect on the crisis in Sudan.
Nahid’s story
Every day started with the sound of guns and cannons. The noise was punctuated only by the sound of one daughter screaming with fear while Nahid Ali held her other daughter, a newborn, in her arms.
“My daughter kept asking me what was happening, but I didn’t know what to tell her,” Nahid said. “I was scared myself.”
Nahid is Plan International’s communication and campaigns coordinator in Sudan. She and her family lost everything in Khartoum – their home, cars, furniture and many of the precious things their friends had given them. She said they even “lost our hearts.” They were displaced within Sudan for eight months.
“We are lucky as we are still alive.”
— Nahid Ali, Plan International communication and campaigns coordinator in Sudan
“I feel lucky, despite everything. We were able to flee the conflict and have [our daughter] safely. I was so worried that I was watching videos on YouTube on how to deliver a baby at home, because there was nowhere to go to.”
— Asim Elzubair, child protection programme lead
“When I spoke with the children, all of them were drawing vehicles. When I asked why, they all said these were the vehicles that would take them back to their homes. I couldn’t control myself – I started crying.”
— Hawa Eltigani, deployable child protection in emergencies specialist
“It was a tough time… worrying that I would not see my family again, because many people were losing their entire family in the war. After two months, I finally spoke to my sister. She called me. She was so happy I was alive.”
— Tarig Yagoub, project area manager
“We have over 150 Sudanese staff at Plan who are either displaced themselves or are hosting displaced people,” says Mohammed Qazilbash, Plan Sudan’s country director. “Their ability to respond to this crisis, despite being traumatized survivors themselves, is phenomenal.”
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