The Sudan Emergency: Three years on | 2025 Update

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Current Humanitarian Situation

Despite repeated diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire, the conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has continued unabated since April 2023 and has become the world’s largest displacement and protection crisis. The conflict in Sudan has been marked by severe violence and widespread human rights violations against civilians, including sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion, and the targeting of specific ethnic groups—resulting in a humanitarian crisis across the country and the wider region. As the Sudan conflict enters its fourth year, both the scale and complexity of the crisis is intensifying, with continued large internal and cross-border displacement as well as secondary or repeated movements driven by insecurity but also due to gaps in services in neighbouring countries, with clinics closing, nutrition programmes suspended, and protection services cut.

As of March 2026, more than 14 million people had been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began, with nearly 12 million remaining displaced. This includes 6.8 million still internally displaced in Sudan, many of whom live in extremely precarious conditions in informal sites, settlements and in camps. An additional 4.5 million refugees, asylum-seekers, and returnees sought safety in the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda. Returns to and within Sudan in areas where fighting has largely abated—comprising approximately 3.5 million internally-displaced persons and 897,500 refugee returnees primarily from Egypt, South Sudan and Libya remain extremely fragile due to the collapse of basic services, widespread destruction of infrastructure, and limited access to humanitarian assistance. Families returning to Sudan, often facing hardships in places of displacement, are driven by the determination to rebuild their lives after years of relentless conflict.

But decisions to return to Sudan are challenging. Many Sudanese returnees arrive to find their home areas destroyed, with infrastructure and basic services no longer functioning. Some are stranded in border and transit states without sufficient means to travel home, which strains already limited services and humanitarian capacity. Extreme weather events in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad have deepened needs by damaging shelters and key infrastructure, disrupting livelihoods, and hindering aid delivery. Disease outbreaks, particularly cholera, are also worsening conditions, especially in Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan. Concurrently, nearly 862,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are hosted in Sudan, many of whom live in protracted displacement and have experienced multiple displacements since the start of the conflict. Also, the proportion of refugees and asylum-seekers living in camps versus in urban areas has shifted during the conflict, with some 70 per cent now living in camps in extremely overcrowded conditions, with basic services unable to meet the vastly increased needs. Sudan also continues to receive refugees and asylum-seekers from South Sudan, with ongoing instability in the country remaining the primary driver of displacement. As of 31 March 2026, an estimated 84,700 new arrivals have been recorded, placing additional pressure on already strained reception capacity and basic services in hosting areas.

Source: https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-emergency-three-years-2025-update