Sudan

You can contribute to our ongoing efforts in Sudan.

For the past 12 months, Sudan has been gripped by conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Fighting that first broke out on April 15th in the capital Khartoum, and has now spread rapidly across the country.

Recent UN OCHA reports suggest that over 14,700 people have been killed in the conflict so far. Nearly 25 million people – of whom 14 million are children – are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

One year after the outbreak of violence, the volunteers and staff of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) are still working around the clock with limited resources to meet massive humanitarian needs. More than one-third of the country’s population, 17.7 million people, are facing acute food insecurity.

An estimated 80 percent of Sudan’s healthcare facilities have stopped functioning since the crisis began. There is a lack of safe and unhindered access for humanitarian organizations to reach conflict-affected areas and reduced access to information, particularly in relation to missing loved ones separated by the conflict.

Aida Al-Sayed Abdullah, Secretary General of Sudanese Red Crescent – “We urge the international community to increase their support to help us meet the urgent needs of the communities trapped in conflict. We cannot let Sudan become another forgotten crisis”

Working as one Movement, SRCS has been supported by ICRC, IFRC and national societies (notably Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan) in the provision of essential services including first aid, psychosocial support, distributing food, water, and urgent medical care.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, together with 4,000 Sudanese Red Crescent Society Volunteers, we have:

• Delivered vital equipment to preserve essential services, helping over 2 million people
• Facilitated over 66,000 phone calls between separated family members
• Evacuated 300 children and 72 caretakers from an orphanage and facilitated the release of 565 detainees, including 91 minors

Wajdan Hassan Ahmed (pictured) has been volunteering for 16 years. She describes the past twelve months as the most difficult year of her life. “The stories I experienced at the beginning of the war – the evacuations of people disfigured by bomb shrapnel, the stories of fathers who had lost their daughters, mothers who had lost their children, parents who lost their whole family… all these stories have stayed with me, and I cannot forget them,” she said.

Your support today can make a life-saving difference – protecting and saving the lives of victims of armed conflict and violence.

Psychosocial support

As well as helping to evacuate people and bring them to safety far away from the fighting, Wajdan and her Red Crescent colleagues have been providing much-needed psychosocial support as well as food, water, and information. 

Many families were separated in the panic caused by the violence, and the resulting displacement within and out of Sudan has pushed people far away from their loved ones. The Sudanese Red Crescent’s Restoring Family Links service is still helping to connect and reunite them.

Health Clinics

SRCS teams have also been operating both fixed and mobile health clinics, helping at-risk people to get the care they need, wherever they may be. An estimated 80 percent of Sudan’s healthcare facilities have stopped functioning since the crisis began, putting intense pressure on existing community-based Red Crescent health services.

As a trusted neutral and impartial organization with thousands of highly trained volunteers and a permanent presence in communities in all 18 States, the SRCS has been at the forefront of the response during this past year. Around 4,000 volunteers have been directly involved in the emergency response.

*Last updated April 2024