Seven Months Conflict Key Facts and Figures

Agencies- Sudan Events

Seven months after fighting erupted, Sudan is facing one of the fastest unfolding crises globally, with unprecedented needs in such a short period. Close to 6.2 million people – about one in every eight people in the country – have fled their homes since the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started in mid-April. They have sought refuge within Sudan or in neighbouring countries.
According to the International Organization for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM DTM), close to 5 million people have been displaced by fighting within Sudan and have sought refuge in 5,312 locations across all 18 states. The displaced are from eight states, with the majority – about 3.4 million people (68 per cent of all internally displaced) – originally from Khartoum. Most have sought refuge in River Nile followed by South Darfur, East Darfur, Gaziera, White Nile, North Darfur, Northern, Sinnar and other states. About 1.2 million people have crossed into the neighbouring Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan as of 8 October, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Disease outbreaks are increasing due to the disruption of basic public health services, including disease surveillance, functioning public health laboratory and rapid response teams. In addition, insecurity, displacement, limited access to medicines, medical supplies, electricity, and water continue to pose enormous challenges to delivering health care across the country. About 65 per cent of the population lack access to healthcare and between 70 – 80 per cent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are no longer functional. Meanwhile, almost 3,000 suspected cases of cholera, including 95 deaths, have been reported from seven states as of 12 November, according to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Other disease outbreaks are ongoing in several states, including measles, malaria and dengue.
The conflict has deprived about 12 million children of schooling since April, with the total number of children in Sudan who are out of school reaching 19 million, Save the Children (SC) and the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) reported. Of this total, 6.5 million children — or 1 in every 3 children in the country — have lost access to school due to increased violence and insecurity, with at least 10,400 schools now closed in conflict – affected areas. Meanwhile, over 5.5 million children who reside in areas less affected by war are waiting for local authorities to confirm whether classrooms can be re-opened. Before April, nearly 7 million children were already out of school. If the war continues, no child in Sudan can return to school in the coming months, exposing them to immediate and long-term dangers, including displacement, recruitment into armed groups and sexual violence. Sudan is on the brink of becoming home to the worst education crisis in the world,” according to UNICEF.
The conflict is devastating the livelihoods of millions of people in Sudan. According to the World Bank, the economy is expected to contract by 12 per cent in 2023 because the conflict has halted production and destroyed human capital and state capacity. The growth forecast for Sudan has been revised downward by 12.5 percentage points as the armed conflict has damaged the country’s industrial base and education and health facilities. It has also led to a collapse in economic activity — including commerce, financial, and information and communications technology services — and the erosion of state capacity, with detrimental impacts on food security and forced displacement. For comparison, the economies of Yemen and Syria have shrunk by about 50 per cent over the past decade, or about 5 per cent per year on average. The pace of economic contraction in Sudan seems to have doubled that.
Despite various challenges – insecurity, looting, bureaucratic impediments, poor network and phone connectivity problems, lack of cash, and few technical and humanitarian staff on the ground – affecting the delivery of humanitarian assistance in many parts of the country, the humanitarian organizations have reached about 4.5 million people with multisectoral life-saving assistance and 5.5 million people with livelihood support since the start of the conflict. Prior to the conflict, 2.7 million people were reached with some form of humanitarian assistance from January to March 2023. This includes vital education, health, food, nutrition, water assistance and protection services.
The 156 UN and NGO partners in Sudan can provide more people with assistance and services if the funding for humanitarian response is expedited. The revised 2023 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) requires US$2.6 billion to provide life-saving multi-sectoral and protection assistance to 18.1 million people in desperate need through the end of this year. According to the Financial Tracking Service, the appeal is only 33.4 per cent funded, with $856.2 million received as of 15 November.