Nairobi, Kenya, April 14, 2026 — Three years since conflict erupted in Sudan, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that a preventable catastrophe has been allowed to escalate into one of the largest and fastest growing humanitarian crises in the world whilst hostilities in the Middle East and closure of key shipping routes and airspaces risks further driving humanitarian need. Despite years of warnings, inaction has fuelled relentless violence, mass displacement and economic collapse, pushing millions of people in Sudan and across the region to the brink.
Around 14 million people have been forced from their homes since the war began, many multiple times. Over 4.5 million Sudanese have fled across borders into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Libya, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. Inside Sudan, 29 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine conditions already taking hold in some areas.
What began in April 2023 as a conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has become a sustained assault on civilians. Entire cities lie in ruins. Health systems have collapsed. Water networks have been destroyed. Food supply chains have been shattered. Millions remain trapped in active conflict zones with little or no access to food, healthcare or safe water. The continued destruction of livelihoods and basic services is driving hunger, disease and further displacement at a terrifying pace.
David Miliband, IRC’s CEO and President, said,
“The Iran War must not blind us to the ongoing catastrophe in Sudan - the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. After three years of war, it is not only the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, but also the starkest proof yet of the devastating cost of the New World Disorder and international neglect. Diplomacy has failed, international law is violated with impunity and rampant war economies and support from regional actors drive violence, causing record breaking civilian suffering.
“Despite efforts by some donors to protect humanitarian funding, the humanitarian response in Sudan has been decimated at a time when millions face hunger, displacement, and endemic levels of conflict related sexual violence. With reverberations of the conflict on Iran, the risk of further deterioration is real and present. The international community cannot afford to treat Sudan as a distant crisis- it is a mirror held up to a world that is failing the test of collective action."
Richard Data, IRC Country Director for Sudan, said,
“Enough is enough. For three years, we have warned that Sudan was on the brink of catastrophe, and those warnings have gone unanswered. What we are seeing now is the predictable result of inaction. This is not just a conflict, it is a collapse of an entire country and a crisis that is rapidly engulfing the region. Millions of families are trapped, hungry and cut off from even the most basic services, while neighboring countries are being pushed to breaking point.
“Without urgent action to scale up funding and ensure aid can reach those in need and without real political pressure to end the violence and the relentless attacks on civilians, this crisis will continue to spiral further out of control, with consequences that continue to be felt far beyond Sudan.”
The consequences have been reverberating across the region since the beginning of the crisis at alarming speed. Neighboring countries, already grappling with poverty, food insecurity and climate shocks, have themselves been pushed to breaking point. Chad alone now hosts over a million displaced people, many still arriving with nothing. In South Sudan, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees are arriving alongside South Sudanese returnees fleeing the same violence, compounding pressure on already fragile systems. At the same time, cuts to US foreign aid have sharply reduced the resources available to respond, leaving an already underfunded humanitarian response even more constrained just as needs are rapidly escalating.
The situation risks deteriorating even further due to escalating tensions in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route. Disruptions to maritime and air transport are already delaying humanitarian supplies, increasing costs and forcing aid organizations to reroute or pause deliveries. As an example, the IRC currently has approximately $130,000 worth of essential pharmaceutical supplies stranded in Dubai, originally intended for the humanitarian response in Sudan. Prolonged disruption could severely limit the delivery of life-saving aid, deepen shortages of critical medicines and further delay assistance to millions in urgent need.
Across the region, the scale of need is outpacing the response. Communities that have shown extraordinary solidarity are now being stretched beyond their limits, raising the risk of deepening instability.
The IRC is calling for immediate, sustained international action. This must include a surge in humanitarian funding, guaranteed safe and unhindered access for aid organizations, concrete measures to protect civilians, and urgent diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the violence. Three years on, the cost of delay is no longer measured in warnings, but in lives lost every day.