Sudan Crisis Becomes World’s Largest Displacement Catastrophe While Global Attention Focuses Elsewhere

While international headlines focus primarily on Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Sudan has quietly become the world’s largest displacement crisis, with approximately 12 million people forced from their homes amid a devastating civil war that has raged since April 2023.

“Sudan is under the darkest of clouds, a catastrophe that has, for far too long, been met with paralysis by the international community,” stated Rep. Chris Smith during a House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee hearing on December 11. Smith, who chairs the subcommittee, called for immediate action to end hostilities between warring factions and condemned the widespread atrocities occurring throughout the country.

The conflict has recently gained renewed attention after President Donald Trump pledged to secure a peace deal following his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November. This diplomatic initiative comes as humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly across the East African nation.

Recent violence has intensified, with World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reporting that drone strikes on December 4 in Sudan’s South Kordofan region struck a kindergarten and nearby hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children. “Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital,” Tedros noted in his statement. The Sudan Doctors Network attributed these attacks to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The current crisis stems from the collapse of an uneasy alliance between Sudan’s two major military powers – the government-led Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both groups had previously collaborated under the regime of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir before their power-sharing agreement disintegrated in 2023.

The RSF has been accused of particularly egregious human rights violations, including mass rape, ethnic targeting, and systematic looting. In October, the group reportedly killed over 400 aid workers and patients at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, North Darfur. The subsequent RSF siege of El Fasher forced at least 28,000 people to flee to neighboring towns, with the UN Human Rights Office documenting “summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement.”

The death toll from this conflict remains difficult to verify due to limited access for journalists and humanitarian organizations. Tom Perriello, former U.S. special envoy for Sudan, estimated in September that up to 400,000 people have been killed since violence erupted in 2023, while other sources cite figures closer to 100,000.

“The war in Sudan has been one of the most gruesome humanitarian catastrophes in world history. However, there has been frequent paralysis by world leaders and international institutions to solve it, in addition to reduced, fluctuating media attention on the conflict,” explained Caroline Rose, director of Military and National Security Priorities at New Lines Institute.

Rose and other observers attribute the limited international response partly to geopolitical factors. “Unlike wars in Ukraine and Gaza, there is not a component of great-power competition or regional contestation,” she noted. Additionally, access restrictions imposed by both the Sudanese armed forces and RSF have hampered humanitarian relief efforts and documentation of war crimes.

Beyond the direct violence, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Approximately 30 million people now require humanitarian assistance, with 21.2 million – nearly half the country’s population – facing acute food insecurity.

As the Trump administration begins efforts to broker a ceasefire between the warring factions, Rep. Smith emphasized that accountability must be part of any resolution: “Crimes against humanity — particularly by the Rapid Support Forces — must be investigated, and perpetrators held accountable.”