In April 2023, fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group. What began as a power struggle between two military leaders quickly became a catastrophic civil war.
By 2024, the conflict had killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 8 million from their homes, and pushed large parts of Sudan toward famine. The United Nations described it as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Why It Got So Little Attention
Sudan's war competed for global attention with Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict, and a seemingly endless stream of other crises. Aid organizations repeatedly flagged that donations and political attention were critically insufficient relative to the scale of suffering.
The Famine Warning
By mid-2024, the United Nations declared famine in parts of Sudan — the first official famine declaration globally in years. Children were dying of malnutrition. The situation remained dire as 2025 began.
The world's attention is finite. Some crises suffer for it. Sudan deserves to be remembered.