Sudan is suffering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis “while the world stands by”, with vulnerable children not knowing where their next meal is coming from, a new report has found
War-torn Sudan is “staring into a humanitarian abyss” as millions of children increasingly face violence, extreme hunger and disease, a report has found.
Sudan is currently in the midst of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as a result of a civil war that broke out in 2023. It is having a direct effect on the UK with swathes of Sudanese and South Sudanese migrants now filling refugee camps in northern France in a bid to make perilous dinghy journeys across the Channel. In the year to March, some 9% of the 36,000 small boat arrivals were from Sudan, according to Home Office data.
While Sudanese made up 21% – the highest number – of the 2,585 ‘recorded detections’ in the UK, meaning those believed by authorities to have evaded border controls to enter the UK irregularly, up to 72 hours beforehand. The Mirror witnessed first hand the horrifying stories of Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees in a camp in Dunkirk, northern France, in April. Many young men felt they had no option but to flee their East African home for fear of being forced to join murderous militias.
A report by international aid agency World Vision says some 24.6 million people – 51% of Sudan’s population – faces ‘crises level food insecurity or worse’. While 38% of its child population is experiencing severe hunger, and 52% moderate hunger, the Sudan Crises and Migration Emergency Response (SCRAMER) analysis found.
UN Children’s agency UNICEF has previously said that armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one. The impact on children has seen widespread displacement, trauma and school disruption.
While desperation for food has resulted in harmful coping strategies, the SCRAMER report said, including child labour and family separation. The wide-ranging assessment, spanning six countries in East and Central Africa, reveals a deepening crises, with Sudan and South Sudan ‘at the epicentre of an unfolding catastrophe’, said World Vision.
“We are staring at a humanitarian abyss,” said Simon Mane, World Vision’s SCRAMER Multi-Country Response Director. “When half the population of a country is unsure of their next meal, and hundreds of thousands are in catastrophe levels of food insecurity, it is no longer a crisis – it is a collapse.
“The world is standing by while millions of children are at risk of malnutrition and hunger. Many people don’t even know about it because it rarely makes the headlines.”
After a 2021 coup, a council of generals ran Sudan, led by the two military men at the centre of this dispute – Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country’s president. And his deputy and leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti”.
But they disagreed on the direction the country was going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule, and war broke out between them. As well as sparking major displacement, both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes.
The UN says the war has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Cuts to US AID by Donald Trump in February had an immediate impact, sources said, with many aid groups struggling to provide the needs required.
Organisations’ ability to plan have also been hit by talk in Europe of international aid cuts, sources added. Sir Keir Starmer controversially cut the UK’s foreign aid budget to fund defence spending, but Sudan has remained an aid priority, along with Gaza and Ukraine.
Last week British filmmaker Steve McQueen, cookery legend Delia Smith and actor Will Poulter urged Starmer to take greater action to tackle the crisis. The trio are among celebs who have signed a letter to the PM calling for the government to help save lives in the war-torn African country.
England footballer Lucy Bronze, Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt, chef Rick Stein and actress Dame Harriet Walter have also put their names to the call. The letter to Starmer says: “Following over two years of violent conflict, Sudan is now the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with half of the country’s population – a staggering 24.6 million people – already facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Together with a coalition of Sudanese civil-society and UK aid organisations, we are calling for rapid and scaled-up action from the UK Government to help save lives before it is too late.
“The conflict has had a horrifying impact on children’s lives, with a staggering 16 million children now in dire need of support. These children have witnessed and been subject to brutal violence, have lost loved ones, have fled their homes and been forced to say goodbye to their schools and communities.”
The letter, organised by charity Plan International UK, was handed in at Downing Street on Monday. In April, at a conference in London, Foreign Secretary David Lammy – who visited the border of Sudan earlier this year – announced an extra £120 million of support for the stricken country.
But the letter urges the government to “step up its efforts by… Announcing additional emergency funding for the Sudan crisis to help save lives, providing funding that has been promised so it reaches people who need it in the coming weeks, and urging other governments to scale-up their humanitarian efforts”.