10% of all people in the world classified as “needing humanitarian assistance” are in Sudan.

Not a day goes by without a new story about one or more of the humanitarian crises currently plaguing humanity. One day it's the suffering resulting from October 7 and its aftermath. The next, it’s a Russian missile strike on schools in Ukraine or the terrible suffering in Haiti. As poignant—and urgent—as those crises are, the largest crisis of them all—what’s going on in Sudan—isn't getting the attention it deserves.

In its Emergency Watch 2025, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) declared Sudan the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.” Not the Ethiopian famine that inspired the historic Live Aid concert; not the mass flight of Venezuelans into Colombia and beyond; not Ebola outbreaks in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea. Not the many earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods that have brought so much destruction to places like Haiti, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and elsewhere. The worst ever is what's going on in Sudan at this very moment where, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, one out of every two people in the country needs humanitarian assistance and relief.

There are many facets to the suffering in Sudan. There is a displacement crisis where 14.6 million people—well over a third of the pre-war population—are “forcibly displaced,” according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), contributing to the “largest and fastest displacement crisis in the world."  Save the Children estimates that more than 25% of those displaced are children younger than five years. And World Vision reports that the country is now home to the largest number of displaced children anywhere in the world and, that more than 90% of Sudan’s school-aged children have no access to formal education.

Sudan’s displacement numbers are also a reminder that humanitarian crises are almost always regional crises. More than three million people, most of whom are women and children, have sought refuge from Sudan’s neighbors.

Since April 2023, more than 810,000 people fled the country into South Sudan, which is already one of the world’s poorest and most troubled nations. Accordingly, the Sudanese influx has helped move South Sudan to the number five on the IRC Emergency Watchlist. Chad, Sudan’s neighbor to the west, has received nearly 700,000 migrants, of which nearly 90% are women and children, threatening Chad’s political stability and economic prospects, in part prompting IRC to include Chad in its watchlist for the coming year. A recent editorial in the UK’s The Times referred to Sudan’s civil war and the resulting “mass exodus” as the “Heart of Darkness” which could soon become an “international crisis.”

The fighting in Sudan has brought famine to many parts of the country. IRC reports that 750,000 people are facing the highest level of food insecurity. World Vision states that famine has been officially substantiated in the North Darfur region, and overall, more than half the country’s population is facing crisis levels of food insecurity. The World Food Program refers to what’s happening in Sudan and its neighbors as the “world’s largest hunger crisis.”

This hunger crisis has been made even worse by the actions of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies, who have been accused of looting food at a time when children are dying from malnutrition. The World Food Program lost more than $60 million worth of food, and 85 other aid groups reported attacks and theft. In addition, RSF forces have also been reported as continuously destroying crops and farming equipment, and killing farmers—40 farmers were killed in December 2024 alone. Even with access to markets, the UN reports that nearly 90% of displaced households cannot afford food.

Furthermore, the country’s civil war has disrupted the already weak healthcare safety net that most Sudanese rely upon for their survival. As health outbreaks threaten the population, UNHCR reports that 60% of the displaced cannot access health services. Over roughly 18 months in 2023 and 2024, the World Health Organization documented at least 119 separate attacks on healthcare facilities, leading to outbreaks of cholera, malaria, and more. The strain is even more profound on healthcare workers, who despite extremely limited resources, see upwards of 600 patients each day.

Sudan is in its second year of this most recent civil war. In reality, the country has known only 11 years of relative peace over the last 69 years. But there have been hopeful—though fleeting—moments in the country’s recent history.

In 2019, when Omar al-Bashir was chased from power, Abdalla Hamdok, a well-known development economist, was chosen to serve as Prime Minister. In my capacity as administrator of the US Agency for International Development, I’d previously traveled to the capital of Khartoum to talk with the country’s foreign minister about the prospects of US assistance if the country would take the right steps toward both institutionalizing democracy and protecting human rights. When the Foreign Minister visited us in Washington, DC several months later, we continued the discussion and he promised that significant reforms were on the way. Sadly, that hopeful moment did not lead to civilian rule taking root; Hamdok was removed from power in October 2021. On January 7 of this year, the US State Department declared that rebel forces in Sudan had committed genocide through their actions. 

Sudan has now earned the dubious distinction of finishing first in the IRC's emergency watch list for two years in a row. 

This blog was researched and drafted with assistance from Chelsea Acheampong.