The United Nations has reported a grim milestone in Sudan’s ongoing war: over 4 million people have fled the country since the conflict erupted in April 2023.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) issued a stark warning on Tuesday, emphasising that the crisis now represents the most devastating displacement emergency globally.
The war, which broke out between Sudan’s national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has not only claimed tens of thousands of lives but also triggered the world’s worst hunger and displacement catastrophe.
“Four million people now have fled Sudan into neighbouring countries since the start of the war, now in its third year,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Eujin Byun at a press briefing in Geneva. “It’s a devastating milestone in what is the world’s most damaging displacement crisis,” she added. “If the conflict continues, thousands more people will continue to flee, putting regional and global stability at stake.”
According to the UNHCR, 4,003,385 people have left Sudan as of Monday. Egypt has received 1.5 million of these refugees, while over 1.1 million have crossed into South Sudan—including nearly 800,000 returnees who were once refugees in Sudan themselves. Chad has taken in more than 850,000 people.
The crisis is particularly acute in Chad, where the refugee population from Sudan has tripled since the fighting began. The country, already burdened with over 400,000 Sudanese refugees before 2023, is now hosting over 1.2 million.
“This is placing unsustainable pressure on Chad’s ability to respond,” said Dossou Patrice Ahouansou, UNHCR’s principal situation coordinator in Chad, speaking from the eastern town of Amdjarass.
He noted that recent violence in Sudan’s North Darfur region, including attacks on displacement camps, has triggered a sharp rise in border crossings since late April. More than 68,000 people have entered Chad’s Wadi Fira and Ennedi Est provinces in just over a month, with about 1,400 new arrivals each day in recent times.
“These civilians are fleeing in terror, many under fire, navigating armed checkpoints, extortion, and tight restrictions imposed by armed groups,” Ahouansou said.
He warned that the humanitarian response is “dangerously underfunded,” with many refugees living in “dire” conditions, exposed to extreme heat, ongoing violence, and lack of clean water.
UNHCR stressed the critical need for global action. “Urgent need” exists for the international community “to acknowledge, and act to eradicate, the grave human rights abuses being endured in Sudan,” the agency stated.
Ahouansou echoed this urgency: “Without a significant increase in funding, life-saving assistance cannot be delivered at the scale and speed required.”
The war has effectively fragmented Sudan, with the national army controlling the central, northern, and eastern regions, while the RSF and its allies have seized most of Darfur and parts of the south. As the conflict drags on into its third year, humanitarian organizations fear that the worst may be yet to come without decisive international intervention.