Sudan Emergency | Critical Life-saving Needs (November 2025 – January 2026)

Overview

The Sudan crisis has become the world’s largest displacement and protection emergency. Since April 2023, some 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes, of whom nearly 12 million remain displaced —7.3 million within Sudan and over 4.2 million across borders into the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda. This is not only a Sudanese crisis but a regional emergency with global repercussions. Its ripple effects are straining an already fragile region, stretching host communities, overwhelming local services, and testing the limits of humanitarian operations as needs grow by the day.

While the Sudan Situation Appeal 2025 remains critically underfunded at only 35 per cent – with overall needs totalling $1.1 billion – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is urgently seeking $84.2 million in flexible funding to sustain life-saving response efforts inside Sudan and across seven host countries through January 2026. This critical injection of resources will help prevent further loss of life and uphold the safety and dignity of people who have endured unimaginable trauma.

Situation update

In late October 2025, the security situation in North Darfur sharply deteriorated as the Rapid Support Forces seized full control of El Fasher after 500 days of siege. The takeover forced tens of thousands to flee and left many trapped inside the city. Attacks on displacement camps, hospitals, and other civilian areas have once again become a defining feature of this conflict. Between 26 October and early November, some 80,000 people – including refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) – are estimated to have fled El Fasher, with around 6,000 arriving in Tawila, 1,500 in Khazan Jedid, and several hundred in Al Dabbah, River Nile State. New arrivals describe widespread violence and human rights abuses.

Civilians remain at extreme risk amid the absence of safe humanitarian access and corridors across much of Darfur and Kordofan. New and secondary displacement is expected to continue within North Darfur and into Chad, while intensified fighting around El Obeid in North Kordofan has triggered new movements in White Nile State, increasing the risk of further refugee flows into South Sudan.

Despite the conflict, Sudan continues to host nearly 900,000 refugees and asylum-seekers and has seen 2.6 million people return to areas of relative safety this year – 1 million to Khartoum alone. Yet most return areas remain devastated, with minimal infrastructure and basic services.

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