The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis Is Happening in Sudan and Almost Nobody’s Talking About It

More than 13 million people have been displaced since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, according to humanitarian organizations, fueling a refugee crisis that continues to spread across the region as violence and instability persist.

Since fighting began between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, more than 4 million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries while more than 9 million others remain displaced inside Sudan. Together, they make up what aid groups now describe as the largest displacement crisis in the world.

For many families, displacement is not a single event but an ongoing reality. As fighting spreads into new areas, people who have already fled once often find themselves forced to move again. Families leave villages for displacement camps. Others cross international borders. Some eventually return home only to discover there is nothing left to return to.

“People continue to move from one place to another in seek of safety, in seek of security,” said Grace Mavhezha, a World Vision aid worker responding to the crisis. “But unfortunately, when they reach another place, the situation will be worse.”

For aid workers, the consequences of displacement are often best understood through individual stories. While visiting an internally displaced persons camp, Mavhezha met an 11-year-old boy who told her he had watched his father get shot. His mother had gone to the market when violence erupted, and amid the chaos that followed, the family became separated. The boy eventually made his way to the camp, where he was taken in by a foster family.

When Mavhezha returned several months later, she asked about him. The foster mother told her the boy had run away because he wanted to search for his mother.

“He said he wanted to look for his mother,” Mavhezha recalled.

To this day, she does not know what happened to him.

“What I was thinking is what happened to him,” she said. “This is not only his story. This is what is happening to many children.”

His story reflects one of the defining realities of Sudan’s displacement crisis. Families are being separated as they flee violence, often with no way of finding one another again. Children who once lived in stable communities now find themselves moving between camps, temporary shelters and unfamiliar towns, uncertain whether they will ever return home.

What makes Sudan’s displacement crisis particularly devastating is that fleeing violence rarely brings stability. Families who escape active fighting often arrive in communities where resources are already stretched thin, only to discover that shelter, food, health care and education remain difficult to access. Others return to the places they once called home hoping to rebuild their lives, only to find communities devastated by years of conflict.

“We are also facing people returning to their homes with nothing,” Mavhezha said. “They reach there and there is nothing. So they want to rebuild, they want to restart. But the situation remains dire.”

The conflict has now entered its fourth year, reshaping daily life across Sudan and throughout the surrounding region. Millions of refugees have crossed into neighboring countries including Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. At the same time, millions more remain displaced within Sudan, living in temporary settlements, schools converted into shelters and overcrowded communities trying to absorb families fleeing violence.

Even those who find temporary refuge often remain vulnerable. Mavhezha said attacks continue in areas where displaced families have settled, forcing them to relocate repeatedly as they search for somewhere safe.

“There are attacks in different areas, whether they are internally displaced camps where they would have settled,” she said. “Still, they continue to move from one place to another.”

The consequences of displacement extend far beyond losing a home. Schools have closed or been repurposed as shelters. Health facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Water infrastructure has collapsed in many areas. Families that once relied on farming or small businesses to support themselves have lost access to land, jobs and income.

Children have borne much of that burden. More than 10 million children are currently out of school, according to Mavhezha, and many have spent years living in camps or temporary settlements instead of classrooms.

“Children who were born in 2023 haven’t seen any peace,” Mavhezha said. “They have grown to the sounds of the conflict, sounds of the drones, of the bombs.”

Yet despite becoming the world’s largest displacement crisis, Sudan has struggled to command sustained international attention. Mavhezha believes part of the reason is that the conflict has dragged on for years, allowing global attention to shift elsewhere even as conditions continue to worsen.

“The Sudan crisis seems to be a forgotten crisis,” she said. “When we don’t talk about it, we don’t highlight the current situation, the challenges, the situation of unaccompanied and separated children. People tend to forget.”

World Vision is currently operating in eight of Sudan’s 18 states, providing food assistance, clean water, sanitation services, protection programs for vulnerable women and children and cash assistance where possible. The organization is also working with local partners to support displaced families and communities hosting refugees.

Humanitarian organizations say readers who want to help can support refugee relief efforts, advocate for humanitarian funding and continue raising awareness about the crisis. They also stress the importance of supporting diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the conflict, which remains the only lasting solution for millions of displaced Sudanese families.

Aid can help families survive, but it cannot restore what displacement has taken away. Until the conflict ends, millions of Sudanese will remain separated from their homes, uncertain whether the communities they left behind will ever be the same.

“Children have seen enough,” Mavhezha said. “They wish to go back to school. They wish to play again. They wish to talk to their friends and they miss their homes.”