In the skeletal remains of what was once Omdurman's central market, Fatima Hassan cradles her youngest child, a two-year-old girl whose distended belly speaks to months of malnutrition. Around them, the once-thriving commercial hub of Sudan's twin cities lies in ruins, its streets empty except for the occasional sound of artillery fire echoing across the Nile from Khartoum.
As Sudan's catastrophic civil war enters its third year this April, the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has produced what United Nations agencies are now calling the world's worst humanitarian disaster. The fighting, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has killed an estimated 150,000 people, displaced over 12 million, and pushed the country to the brink of the largest famine the world has seen in decades.
The Editorial's correspondent spent three weeks in eastern Sudan and refugee settlements in Chad, documenting a crisis that has largely vanished from international headlines even as its scale surpasses that of Ukraine, Gaza, and Yemen combined in terms of displacement and food insecurity.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported in February 2026 that half of Sudan's population cannot meet basic food needs, with 755,000 in famine conditions.
A War With No End in Sight
The conflict began as a power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who commands the Rapid Support Forces. What started as clashes in Khartoum has metastasized into a nationwide conflagration that has redrawn the map of Sudanese society.
The RSF, which grew out of the Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur two decades ago, now controls most of the capital and vast swathes of western Sudan. The SAF maintains its grip on Port Sudan in the east, which has become the de facto seat of government, along with parts of the Nile Valley and key military installations. Neither side shows any willingness to negotiate seriously, and multiple ceasefire attempts have collapsed within hours.
International diplomatic efforts have proven ineffective. The African Union's mediation collapsed last September, while a UN-backed forum in Geneva produced no agreement. Regional powers, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, have been accused of fueling the conflict through arms supplies and financial support to their preferred factions.
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Arms Flows Continue Despite Embargo
Despite a UN arms embargo on Darfur dating to 2004, weapons continue flooding into Sudan. A UN Panel of Experts report documented cargo flights delivering military equipment to both sides, with the UAE accused of supplying the RSF through Chad and Libya, while Egypt and Iran have reportedly armed the SAF.
Source: UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Sudan, January 2026The Human Toll: Displacement, Hunger, Death
In the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Dr. Amira Osman runs a feeding center that has seen admissions triple since January. The camp, originally built to house 150,000 people displaced by earlier Darfur conflicts, now holds an estimated 500,000. The World Food Programme declared famine conditions in the camp last August, the first official famine declaration anywhere in the world since South Sudan in 2017.
"We are losing children every day," Dr. Osman told The Editorial by satellite phone, one of the only means of communication from areas under RSF control. "The malnutrition rates among children under five have reached 30 percent. We have medications for three more weeks. After that, I don't know what we will do."
The displacement crisis has spilled across borders. Chad hosts over 1.2 million Sudanese refugees, straining the resources of one of the world's poorest countries. Egypt has received more than 800,000, while South Sudan, itself emerging from civil war, has seen 700,000 Sudanese cross into its territory. The UNHCR has called it the fastest-growing displacement crisis in modern history.
Combined with 3.5 million refugees in neighboring countries, Sudan now accounts for the largest displacement crisis globally, surpassing Syria's decade-long exodus.
Healthcare System Collapse
Over 70 percent of Sudan's hospitals are non-functional due to bombing, looting, or lack of supplies. Disease outbreaks of cholera, measles, and dengue fever have killed thousands in displacement camps, with WHO reporting only 15 percent of essential health services still operating nationwide.
Source: World Health Organization Sudan Crisis Report, March 2026Systematic Violence in Darfur
In Darfur, the violence has taken on an explicitly ethnic dimension that echoes the genocide of the 2000s. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented systematic attacks by RSF forces and allied Arab militias against the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The attacks follow a pattern: villages surrounded, men and boys separated and executed, women subjected to mass rape, and communities burned to prevent return.
The International Criminal Court opened a new investigation in October 2025, adding to existing arrest warrants for Sudanese officials dating to the Bashir era. The United States formally declared in January 2026 that the RSF was committing genocide in Darfur, though this designation has not been accompanied by significant policy changes or enforcement mechanisms.
As the war grinds into its third year, Sudan faces a future that grows darker by the day. The agricultural sector has collapsed, with the April planting season now impossible across much of the country. The educated middle class has fled, along with the institutions—banks, courts, universities—that once held society together. Even if fighting stopped tomorrow, experts estimate recovery would take decades.
For Fatima Hassan in the ruins of Omdurman, such considerations feel impossibly distant. Her immediate concern is finding food for her children before nightfall, when the shelling typically intensifies. "We had a life before this," she said, her voice steady despite everything. "We had a country. Now we are ghosts, waiting to see if the world will remember we exist."