The conflict in Sudan broke out in Khartoum in April 2023 with clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as ‘Hemedti. Since then, the violence has spread across much of the country with various rebel groups, ethnic militias, and international actors being drawn into the escalating hostilities. Mediation efforts and attempts to broker a peace deal have lacked any real traction with attempts in August to bring the sides together at a summit in Geneva ending in failure. There has been a recent escalation in the conflict in parts of the country such as North Darfur, Khartoum and Aj-Jazirah. Worryingly, there have been increasing reports of civilian casualties and the direct targeting of civilian communities based on ethnic and political affiliation. Reports of human rights abuses including SGBV have also increased.
As of the end of November 2024, twenty months into the conflict, ACLED has recorded more than 28,700 events of political violence with over 7,500 civilians killed in direct attacks. These numbers are assumed to be an underestimate of the war’s actual death toll, which some have put as high as 150,000. In addition, over 14 million people have been displaced from their homes (close to a third of the population). The fears of many international humanitarian organisations were realised in August 2024 with the declaration of famine in the Zamzam IDP camp near AL Fasher in North Darfur. Over 21 million people currently face crisis levels or above of food insecurity (IPC 3+).
This report aims to provide reliable and up-to-date information on Sudan's context, living conditions, and population needs. To do so, DFS has followed a rigorous Secondary Data Review (SDR) process focusing on publicly available data on the humanitarian situation gathered up to and including 30 November 2024 (see Information Sources and Gaps). The findings are presented using an analytical framework based on the JIAF. The analysis is also complemented by a dataset of social media posts from Sudan in August 2024 collated by Internews.
