World’s largest humanitarian crisis in Sudan

The UK on Tuesday will co-host a conference in London alongside the African Union, EU, France and Germany to mark the two-year anniversary of the conflict in Sudan.

The one-day conference will bring foreign ministers and leading humanitarian leaders together at a conference in London regarding humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

In a statement, the British Foreign Office said that international representatives will discuss how to achieve a peaceful end to the conflict and address the issues preventing aid reaching those most in need. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Lammy will announce new life-saving aid, worth £120 million ($158.4 million) to support over 650,000 Sudanese people.

He will also identify steps to improve humanitarian access and find a long-term political solution to the ongoing crisis, added in the statement.

Since April 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been battling the army for control of Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

More than 20,000 victims have been killed and 15 million displaced, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US scholars, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.

In recent weeks, the RSF has lost significant territory across Sudan to government forces.

Over the past two years, we have assisted nearly 1.6 million people in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. 

On 15 April 2023, a bloody civil war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the armed group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war has led to the deaths of more than 150,000 people, and millions have been displaced. The violence that exploded and the crisis that followed came on top of several decades of conflict and crises that have hit the population hard, especially in the peripheries, such as the Darfur region in the west, or Kordofan in the south of the country.

“This April, it will be two years since the war in Sudan broke out,” says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Nearly 15 million people have been displaced, and about half of the population needs humanitarian assistance.