Sudan is “one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, yet it is also one of its most overlooked,” said Derk Segaar, the IFRC's Special Envoy for Sudan, on 4 August 2026.¹ The war entered its fourth year in April 2026, fought between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The numbers are jarring and hard to ignore. Thirty-five million people need humanitarian assistance. And around 825,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Sudan in 2026 – the deadliest form of malnutrition – up 7% from last year.² More than nine million have been displaced within Sudan's borders; a further 4.5 million have fled the country entirely, making this the world's largest displacement crisis.³ The pace has only accelerated: in a single week in August, fighting in Sirba, West Darfur, displaced roughly 18,000 people from more than 20 villages, most of them crossing into Chad. Estimates peg the total death toll in Sudan at more than 150,000 people, but aid groups believe the true figure is much higher.
Still, its place in the media remains in the shadows and the suffering of the Sudanese seems perpetual.
Documented, not assumed
These are not vague “atrocities.” They are specific, evidenced findings. Human Rights Watch's World Report 2026⁴ concludes that both warring parties in the conflict have committed war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law over the course of the war, including the unlawful detention, torture and killing of civilians.
2026 has been anything but "the year of peace" Sudan's prime minister Kamil Idris had declared it would be in January.⁵ Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 8 September, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Awa Dabo said her office had documented at least 1,120 civilian deaths from drone strikes across Sudan in the first six months of the year alone.⁶
Specific incidents stand out for their scale and documentation. The SAF's record includes successive drone strikes on Ad-Da'ein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur this March, killing at least 70 people, injuring 146 and rendering the hospital non-functional. This is according to the UN's Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan⁷ and is one of several SAF-attributed drone strikes on markets, residential areas and civilian sites. HRW meanwhile has recorded ethnic cleansing carried out by the RSF in West Darfur, alongside widespread conflict-related sexual violence in the capital. The UN's Fact-Finding Mission released a damning report⁸ on the RSF’s 18-month siege of El Fasher, detailing what that kind of collapse looks like on the ground: a city overrun, with civilians unable to escape either the violence or its aftermath.
Overlooked is measurable, not just felt
Sudan's $2.9 billion humanitarian appeal is only 41% funded, with $1.2 billion received to date.⁹ The shortfall has consequences: funding gaps forced the closure of three health facilities in Central Darfur, cutting off an estimated 75,000 displaced people from care.
Sudan is not absent from the news. But funding, diplomatic pressure, and accountability mechanisms all lag far behind the scale of documented harm. International action remains stifled by geopolitical rivalries, competing global crises, while external financial backing continues to flow to the warring actors themselves. US sanctions exist against parties to the conflict, but HRW and members of Congress argue accountability measures still fall short. Two pending bills – the PEACE in Sudan Act and the US Engagement in Sudanese Peace Act – are the current attempt to close that gap.
The question behind the numbers
Sudan's crisis extends beyond aid and access. It is also a matter of who is financially and materially connected to documented abuses, and whether that connection can be traced and evidenced.
HRW's findings on ethnic cleansing and sexual violence sit alongside a live legislative debate. The pending US bills would require the US government to identify foreign activity in Sudan and assess whether foreign governments are violating the UN arms embargo. This itself is an implicit acknowledgment that external support is reaching those responsible for these abuses, even though accountability for that support remains largely absent.
Why the distinction matters
Sudan won't stay overlooked because the world has forgotten it. It will stay overlooked because documentation and accountability haven't caught up with the scale of what is happening. That is the gap The Justice Company's approach is built to close – a rules-based methodology that turns “who is connected to this” from a moral or political question into an evidentiary one, grounded in international law and backed by a trail of evidence rather than assumption or ideology. Sudan is a live example of why that distinction matters.
How to support people on the ground
Alongside these accountability questions, humanitarian actors are working directly with affected communities. One organisation anyone with interest in the region might be keen to learn more about is SAPA – the Sudanese American Physicians Association. SAPA is an impartial medical organization with no role in documentation, investigation, or advocacy on accountability. It runs hospitals, clinics, and WASH and nutrition programmes across multiple Sudanese states, along with a refugee response in Chad for people fleeing the conflict.
This is what is needed now: direct, on-the-ground humanitarian work, independent of the accountability and legal questions raised above.
¹https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/4/red-cross-urges-international-aid-as-sudan-crisis-deepens
²https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167528
³https://www.rescue.org/uk/article/crisis-sudan-what-happening-and-how-help
⁴https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026
⁵https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx70y0l75wo
⁶https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2026/09/deputy-high-commissioner-dabo-people-sudan-need-protection-justice
⁷https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session63/advance-versions/a-hrc-63-23-auv.pdf
⁸https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/ffm-sudan/index
⁹https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168109