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Overview

UNHCR’s revised total financial requirements through the end of 2024 for the Sudan situation emergency response – in Sudan and neighbouring countries – amount to $1.03 billion, an increase of $40 million from the previous version of the appeal issued in February 2024.

Main developments in the emergency

The conflict that began on 15 April 2023 in Sudan continues unabated. The displacement situation within Sudan and into neighbouring countries has increased with two new countries Libya and Uganda now also part of the Sudan Emergency Supplementary Appeal and the Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan. Some 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict began over a year ago, constituting the largest humanitarian crisis in the region and one of the largest worldwide. There are 7.7 million people who have been internally displaced in Sudan, adding to the more than 3 million who were internally displaced before the conflict. Some 2 million refugees and returnees have fled to neighbouring countries of the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda by end of June 2024 in search of safety.

Prior to the eruption of the current conflict, there were over 4.8 million people already living
in displacement in Sudan (3.7 million IDPs mainly in Darfur and over 1 million refugees, the second highest refugee population in Africa, mainly from South Sudan, Eritrea, the Syrian Arab Republic and Ethiopia, but also from the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad and Yemen.

The escalation of the conflict and the situation in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, which has deteriorated significantly with fighting in the northern and eastern parts of El Fasher and renewed fighting in El Fula in West Kordofan in June, has pushed civilians to flee for safety and shelter in extremely overcrowded gathering sites that lack basic humanitarian services and assistance, due to access constraints, some of which have themselves been directly impacted by the fighting.

Multiple locations in Sudan including in Darfur, Kordofan and even Khartoum are now experiencing shocking famine-like conditions, compounding severe human rights violations. UN leaders have repeatedly called for immediate and decisive action to prevent a hunger crisis likely to affect almost 5 million people, the most vulnerable being the hardest hit. Sexual violence, kidnapping, and ethnic targeting are rampant and deeply alarming. Hostilities and fighting across Sudan and increased insecurity and crime continue to hamper the ability of humanitarian partners to respond to an already dire humanitarian situation.

Displacement, both within and outside the country, is expected to continue, due to the ongoing conflict, insecurity, economic collapse, impending famine, and the deterioration or complete breakdown in some areas of key public services such healthcare and education.

Within Sudan, UNHCR continues to observe complex movements of people. The majority of the newly displaced from Khartoum and elsewhere have taken refuge in the states of River Nile, East Darfur, Northern, Southern Darfur, Sennar and White Nile. Most new arrivals from Sudan to neighbouring countries arrive in a poor nutritional state. But it is not only food that refugees need – they need shelter, health care, water and sanitation facilities, basic protection, psychosocial support and education for their children. As the rainy season starts again, especially in CAR, Chad and South Sudan, with some of the worst flooding in years anticipated in the latter, the logistics and cost of reaching people in border locations and even existing refugee settlements becomes extremely difficult.

At the tragic one-year mark of the Sudan crisis on 15 April 2024, donors pledged 2 billion Euros at a conference in Paris, co-hosted by France, Germany and the European Union. However, despite the continued displacement crisis and looming famine, by end June, funding reported for UNHCR’s initial Sudan Situation Supplementary Appeal Sudan stood at just 25 per cent of the requirements.