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Sudan: 14 million displaced; hunger and attacks on health continue as war enters fourth year
As Sudan approaches the third anniversary of a brutal civil war, millions remain displaced and hungry while the health system lies in ruins, with no end to the violence in sight, UN agencies said on Friday.
Speaking from Khartoum, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)’s representative in the country Marie-Helene Verney told reporters that since the start of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, some 14 million people, or a quarter of the population, have been forced to flee, with 9 million remaining displaced inside Sudan and 4.4 million across borders, primarily in Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.
“Unfortunately, we are not seeing clear progress towards any resolution,” she said, stressing that fighting is still ongoing in large parts of the country: the Kordofans, Darfur and Blue Nile State.
“One thing to note is the increased use of aerial bombardments and drone attacks,” she added.
Airstrikes have been targeting civilian infrastructure “with no warnings,” Ms. Verney said, and serious human rights violations have continued, including massacres, forced recruitment and arbitrary arrests.
Women and girls are particularly at risk of conflict-related sexual violence which “often takes place when they are trying to run for safety,” she added.
In February the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said that over 500 victims of sexual violence were identified in 2025 alone, while a record 11,300 civilians were killed that year while many thousands remained missing or unidentified.
The world’s largest displacement crisis is also a hunger crisis, as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s representative in Sudan Hongjie Yang pointed out, stressing that 21 million Sudanese are now facing acute food insecurity, including 6.3 million in the most dire state of food emergency.
Rural households in conflict areas such as Darfur and the Kordofans are particularly under pressure, he said.
Food production capacities have been largely destroyed, specifically in the state of Khartoum, Mr. Yang added, while the wrecked veterinary laboratory cannot produce vaccines for livestock.
Meanwhile essential health services in the country have been “shattered,” Dr Shible Sahbani, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Sudan told reporters.
Over 40 per cent of the country’s population require urgent health assistance, hospitals are overflowing with patients and disease outbreaks are widespread, he said.
Access to healthcare is all the more difficult as attacks on remaining functional hospitals have rendered them non-functional.
In three years of war WHO has verified and documented more than 200 attacks on healthcare which led to 2,052 deaths, Dr Sahbani said, while health workers have been killed, injured, detained and tortured.
The UN health agency official also highlighted the recent impacts of the war in the Middle East on the provision of humanitarian aid to Sudan.
“Most of the agencies, like WHO, have our main logistics hub in the United Arab Emirates and with what's happening now, it's really impacting our capacity to respond” as humanitarian supply routes have been cut and shipping aid has become slower and more costly.
“Fortunately, we had some supplies in the country to be able to respond immediately… but now we are using our stocks and we need additional supplies to come in,” he said.
-ends-
STORY: Three years of war in Sudan - UNHCR, WHO, FAO
TRT: 06:19”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: CREDIT UNHCR FOR THE BROLL (please see shotlist)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 10 APRIL 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and various dates and locations for B-roll.
- Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
- Medium-wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marie-Helene Verney, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan: “A quarter of the population of the country has been displaced since the start of the fighting. That's about 14 million people.”
- Medium-wide reverse shot: Speaker on screens and journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marie-Helene Verney, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan: “Nine million are internally displaced. The rest, around four million, are in neighboring countries, mostly Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.”
- Medium reverse shot: Speaker on screens and journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marie-Helene Verney, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan: “As we speak, we still have fighting ongoing in large parts of the country, very much this year in three states that are called the Kordofans, fighting still ongoing in Darfur and also in Blue Nile. And one thing to note is the increased use of aerial bombardments and drone attacks.”
- Medium reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference and journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marie-Helene Verney, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan: “Women and girls are particularly at risk, at risk first and foremost, but not only, of conflict-related sexual violence. We are seeing unfortunately conflict-related sexual violence that often takes place when they are trying to run for safety.”
- Medium reverse shot: Speaker on screens and journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Hongjie Yang, Representative of Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Sudan: “21 million Sudanese now are facing acute food insecurity, including 6.3 million in most extreme condition that is emergency and catastrophe. The situation remains dire for the rural households, particularly in the conflict region such as Darfur, Kordofan.”
- Wide reverse shot of journalists and technicians in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Hongjie Yang, Representative of Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Sudan: “State of Khartoum is the second-largest producer of vegetables and fruits, and a lot of fattening farms and slaughtering houses before the war were located here in Khartoum but destroyed by the war. The destruction most severe is the destruction for the essential veterinary laboratory so that now the vaccine for the livestock cannot be produced locally.”
- Medium-wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Shible Sahbani, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan: “During the three years of war, WHO has verified and documented more than 200 attacks that led to more than 2,000 deaths, that's exactly 2,052. Just this year, the first quarter of [20]26, we've recorded and verified 16 attacks on healthcare, leading to almost 200 deaths and more than 300 injuries.”
- Medium reverse shot: Speaker on screens and journalists in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Shible Sahbani, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan: “Most of the agencies like WHO have our main hub, logistics hub, in UAE and with what's happening now, it's really impacting our capacity to respond in terms of time, in terms of cost as well, fortunately we had some supplies in the country to be able to respond immediately, but the problem is that now we are using our stocks and we need additional supplies to come in.”
- Medium reverse shot with journalists in the Press room.
- Various close up shots of journalist in the Press room.
- Med shot, water containers being filled. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, girl putting her water container on a donkey. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, girl on a donkey taking her water home. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, border crossing between Sudan and South Sudan. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, stop sign at the crossing. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Close up, South Sudan flag. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, People walking at the border crossing. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, UNHCR staff talking with people at the border. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Various shots of little girls washing clothes at a water point. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, girl waking clothes. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, Sudanese family seated outside temporary accommodation at the transit site. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Various, slow-motion, Sudanese man. Location: Renk, Joda Border, South Sudan (February 10, 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, UNHCR Transit center. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (9 February 2026) Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, UNHCR staff sitting and talking with returnees and refugees. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (9 February 2026) Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, girl kneating at the transit centre. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (9 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, Sudanese woman at the centre. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (9 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Various shots of people at a water point. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (9 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, refugees and returnees gathered outside with their belongings getting ready to embark on a bus. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Truck full of returnees and refugees departing to the port. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, people’s belongings waiting to be put on the truck. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, people loading bags on the truck. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, people getting onto the truck. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Med shot, refugees and returnees climbing onto the truck. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
- Wide shot, truck with refugees/ retunees leaving for the port. Location: UNHCR Transit Center, Renk, South Sudan, (10 February 2026). Please credit UNHCR.
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The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
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ends