The Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan: One Year On
On April 15, 2023, fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum and other parts of the country. Violence quickly spread across Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuring thousands of others. Learn how USAID quickly mobilized to respond to immediate needs and continues to support the people of Sudan.
Sudan was a country in crisis long before this current conflict, with ongoing fighting, protracted displacement, and climatic events disrupting livelihoods and impeding access to basic services. But now, nearly 25 million people — more than half of the population — require humanitarian assistance. This has created the world’s largest internal displacement crisis and resulted in deteriorating food security, with nearly 5 million people at risk of famine if they are unable to access aid. Horrific accounts of atrocities, widespread shortages of essential items, and limited access to life-saving services have become tragically common.
One year into the conflict, fighting continues to intensify across the country, and humanitarian needs are increasing faster than the resources to address them. Today, we reflect on the devastation of this conflict and the work USAID and our partners are doing to save lives.
Conflict Erupts
The outbreak of conflict in Khartoum caught many people by surprise, including humanitarian agencies operating in Sudan.
“Although this conflict was the worst-case scenario in all our scenario planning, I did not believe it would happen and Khartoum would become the epicenter and the battleground of the largest urban warfare between SAF and RSF,” recalled Eatizaz Yousif, country director of USAID’s humanitarian partner the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
But conflict did break out, and its escalation left an impact on people in Sudan, like Yousif, that was swift and lasting.
“I recall the day the RSF set up an outpost next to our house — when we decided to escape Khartoum; how we navigated numerous checkpoints; and how I drove for over 200 km for the first time to safety, carrying my wheelchair-bound mother. I did not think we would see our house again. Our lives changed and I have been living out of my suitcase since then.”
- Eatizaz Yousif, IRC Sudan Country Director
Disaster Assistance Response Team Activated
As the fighting engulfed the country and the human toll became clear, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance quickly mobilized to address emergency needs. USAID, as the U.S. government’s lead coordinator for international disaster response, deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team, more commonly known as a DART, to the region. The DART works with partners to assess humanitarian needs and determine the best ways to quickly and safely deliver humanitarian assistance. USAID also activated a Response Management Team (RMT) in Washington, D.C., to support the DART and coordinate strategy and programs.
Partners and Staff Safety
Supporting people in need in Sudan was no easy task, particularly in the early days of the conflict. Fierce fighting forced several humanitarian organizations to suspend operations and evacuate staff from the country.
Emily Beggins, a senior humanitarian assistance officer and member of USAID’s Sudan Team, currently serves on the Washington D.C.-based RMT. In her recollections, those early days of the crisis were harrowing.
“We received a number of reports of humanitarian staff who were killed, shot, or injured, and many other reports of near misses. There was little to do to console our partners regarding the agonizing decisions they were needing to make: to suspend operations, to move their own staff to safety without many assurances, to grieve the loss of their homes. But we endeavored to do everything that we could for them with the information we had.”
- Emily Beggins, USAID Sr. Humanitarian Assistance Officer
As USAID staff in D.C. coordinated with partners trying to leave Khartoum and elsewhere, they were also trying to maintain contact with USAID’s Sudanese staff who were sheltering in their homes or trying to evacuate as the conflict literally unfolded around them.
“No part of Sudan has been spared from this conflict. Our own colleagues have been displaced from their homes and from their country, all while working tireless hours and under extreme pressure to serve the people of Sudan,” Beggins said.
Tragically, USAID partners lost at least nine staff members as a result of the conflict, including some who were working with the UN World Food Program, which temporarily suspended critical food assistance as a result.
In total, at least 22 aid workers have been killed in Sudan, working to save lives at the cost of their own.
“Our partners in Sudan were scared and traumatized, but also extremely brave and selfless in working to ensure their staff could get to safety,” Beggins said. “They were immediately thinking about how they could pivot or what program activities they could continue … to ensure that beneficiaries were not left without assistance.”
That resilience led several USAID partners to continue their operations, serving as a lifeline to the Sudanese people during the deteriorating situation.
Yousif’s team with IRC was largely in other states within Sudan, where the early and immediate impacts of the conflict weren’t quite as acute. This meant their vital work could continue.
“Despite the challenges we navigated — both personally and to respond to the crisis — we adapted and established our programs, and were among the first responders in El Gazira state,” Yousif said.
“My deepest appreciation goes to my team, to local responders, our local partners, and also our donors, who all play a critical role, standing strong and remaining committed during this challenging period.”
How USAID has Responded and Continues to Respond
Even as humanitarian organizations navigated the difficult security environment and adapted to new ways of delivering aid, actually reaching people in need has remained one of the greatest challenges.
“We see trucks halted because they can’t cross conflict lines and get food and medicine to places where children are suffering from malnutrition,” said Francine Uenuma, one of the USAID experts who has served as the Sudan DART Leader. “Aid organizations are regularly prevented from moving freely, and it’s those who are lacking in food, medicine, and other basic necessities that are paying the price for that daily.”
Amid this daily struggle for survival and safety, the past year has taken a terrible toll on the Sudanese people.
“It’s easy to get lost in the staggering numbers: 6.5 million people displaced inside of Sudan, almost 18 million who face significant food insecurity,” Uenuma said. “But those numbers represent people who have had to leave behind businesses, homes, jobs, schools — whatever they had built up and worked toward, and many of whom are now unable to meet their basic needs.”
Despite those needs, USAID remains committed to providing life-saving aid in Sudan as the conflict moves into a second year. The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Sudan, providing more than $1 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance since fiscal year 2023, including more than $699 million from USAID.
USAID is supporting life-saving food, health, nutrition, protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene activities. Since last April, USAID partners have reached nearly 6.7 million people with emergency food and nutrition assistance, screened 3.7 million children for malnutrition, and provided safe drinking water to more than 8 million people across Sudan.
Beyond this assistance, we are proud to support the Sudanese people, as well as our partners and our staff working daily to address dire needs. The majority of humanitarian aid delivery in Sudan is done by local organizations, and they will continue to be the bedrock of the humanitarian response based on their unique capacities, local knowledge, important networks, and trust and acceptance among communities.
It is their commitment that motivates us.
“The response can be very disheartening,” admits Beggins, but she still finds hope. “Seeing the way that Sudanese people — from the most local level in neighborhoods to the diaspora community — have stepped up to care for one another with limited resources and amidst the void is really amazing.”
She adds, “We are trying to do what we can to support them.”
