Urgent call for aid as Sudan’s crisis approaches third year

By Dominic Wabwireh with AP

As Sudan’s brutal internal conflict nears its third-year mark, humanitarian leaders at the World Economic Forum issued a stark warning: the world’s largest displacement crisis is being dangerously neglected, with millions facing famine and disease while international attention remains elsewhere.

In a panel at Davos, David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee, framed the Sudan war as a symbol of global failing.

He called it an “avatar for the new world disorder,” noting the conflict’s internationalization and a grim hallmark: more civilian deaths than combatant fatalities.

With 33 million people in urgent humanitarian need, Sudan tops his organization’s emergency watchlist.

‘Completely neglected’: a local aid worker’s plea

Echoing the theme of abandonment, Hanin Ahmed, head of the Sudanese grassroots aid network Emergency Response Rooms (ERR), condemned the international community’s inaction.

“Sudan is the neglected issue… completely neglected,” she stated. Ahmed emphasized that the war is not a civil war but a power struggle between “two full men,” exacerbated by foreign interference.

She described a nationwide deterioration, including in areas not held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), marked by severe food insecurity, lost livelihoods, and disease outbreaks.

The mechanics of a protracted war

The conflict, ignited in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, has created a catastrophic humanitarian landscape.

Recent violence has displaced over 8,000 more people, adding to the millions already uprooted, with both sides accused of war crimes.

A sliver of hope emerged last week with the first aid delivery to the besieged city of el-Fasher in North Darfur, though needs vastly outstrip supply.

Diplomacy: a fragile path forward

Despite the scale of suffering, diplomats maintain that a negotiated peace is possible.

The recent aid access to el-Fasher demonstrates that breakthroughs can occur.

Ahmed’s call for the international community to “stop the bad influence of this war” underscores the central plea from aid groups: beyond humanitarian supplies, sustained political engagement and pressure are urgently needed to silence the guns and address what Miliband termed a crisis defining a disordered world.