All change in Sudan
15 April 2025How the crisis is developing in Sudan, by Syed Mohammed Aftab Alam, Head of Plan International’s Global Hunger Response and Resilience Unit.
Sudan has changed since my last visit in 2018. This time, I was entering through Port Sudan and not Khartoum, and I was travelling to Kassala and Gedaref, instead of White Nile and Darfur. I was surprised by the number of supporting documents carried by my colleague, Ali, who also accompanied me back in 2018. “You’ll be amazed by the number of checkpoints on the roads,” he said, and he was absolutely right. The numerous road checks underscored the stark changes in Sudan over the past seven years.
Henna, a displaced person living in the Abu Anneja gathering site in Gedaref, said: “I’ve had to change my shelter several times due to the ongoing conflict. I wish I could settle permanently in peace. How long will I keep moving?” Since 2023, she has moved three times, first from Khartoum, then through Al Jazeera, before finally arriving in Gedaref. Now she is trying to make a home in a semi-permanent shelter. She has created a beautiful space with paintings and a small kitchen garden where she grows vegetables and flowers using seeds borrowed from her host community in Al Jazeera.
Life remains uncertain
Still, life remains uncertain for the children and adolescents living at the site. The situation is particularly challenging for girls, who face additional vulnerabilities. The conflict has significantly worsened the humanitarian situation. There are glaring gaps in food assistance, water, sanitation, hygiene, and protection services. One of the most pressing demands from displaced people, especially women and adolescent girls, is cash assistance. “I received food six weeks ago from Plan Sudan,” says Henna, “and it lasted only three weeks. I need ‘garoosh’ (cash in Sudanese Arabic) – it is lifesaving. I need money for food, protein, and medicine.”
“I need money for food, protein, and medicine.”
– Henna, displaced person living in Gedaref.
Adolescent girls and women have also raised serious concerns about privacy and dignity, due to the poor condition of toilets and washing areas, which all lack roofs. Approximately thirty percent of people here have begun returning to Al Jazeera State, which most consider their point of origin. This has created a sense of desperation among those left behind, as they watch their fellow Sudanese return to areas declared ‘safe’ by authorities. However, many cannot return, because their places of origin are still unsafe* due to landmines, or simply because of a lack of funds. Here, travelling costs at least 200,000 to 300,000 Sudanese pounds ($100–$150) for a family of five.
Fastest growing displacement crisis
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has become the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis, and the largest global hunger crisis. As of March 2025 8.5 million people have been internally displaced since April 2023, while another 3.5 million Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries, including Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda, and the Central African Republic (CAR).
Today, one in four Sudanese is displaced, and one in six displaced persons globally is Sudanese. The Humanitarian Assistance Commissioner (HAC) in Gedaref estimates that the number of returnees will increase to forty percent by the end of February. The remaining sixty percent will wait for Khartoum to be declared safe, which is expected to take longer.
One in six displaced persons globally is Sudanese.
Sudan is now among the top four countries in the world with the highest prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM). Over half the population — nearly 26 million people — faces high levels of acute hunger. Nearly five million children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers are acutely malnourished, and Sudan is also grappling with multiple disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, measles, and rubella.
The IPC Famine Review Committee has reported famine in at least five areas, and predicts that five additional areas will face famine between December 2024 and May 2025. Currently, 638,000 people are at imminent risk of starvation (IPC Phase 5). North Darfur and the Western Nuba Mountains are already experiencing famine conditions. However, the Sudanese government has rejected the IPC’s classification of the crisis as a famine.
How Plan is supporting girls in Sudan
Plan Sudan will prioritise life-saving interventions, particularly food assistance in camps and gathering sites through cash distribution. The organisation will also focus on improving toilet facilities to enhance privacy, dignity, and protection for adolescent girls and women. In the words of Mohammed Kamal: ‘We need to respond to life-saving needs through an integrated approach, starting with filling empty stomachs.’
As for Henna, she dreams of returning home soon. She hopes to have three meals a day, rebuild her house, recover her livestock, prepare her fields, cultivate crops, and send her children back to school.
* As per the assessment of Plan Sudan leadership, this is subject to UNMAS’s (United Nation Mine Action Service) increasing action to make it safe for humanitarian actors and displaced to return since as there are lots of UXOs (Unexploded Explosive Ordnance) left behind.
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