Sudan, Three Years on: NGOs Call for Intensified Action as the World’s Largest Displacement Crisis Grows

Countries: Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, Uganda Sources: Inter-Agency Working Group East and Central Africa, South Sudan NGO Forum, Sudan INGO Forum Please refer to the attached file. Three years into the brutal war in Sudan, tens of thousands of children, women, and men have been killed,starved, and maimed in what is today the world’s largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis. With the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan and its impacts across the region showing no signs of abating, NGOs working across the region are alarmed at the insufficient funding response and diplomatic attention that this conflict and the consequent regional crisis is receiving. The last three years have seen multiple and dramatic spillover effects in neighbouring countries. These include massive displacement, disease outbreaks, collapse of cross-border trade, food price inflation, security and protection threats, heightened intercommunal tension, and the overspill of conflict. What is happening in Sudan must be considered and addressed as a regional crisis, and addressed accordingly. To date, almost 4.5 million people have fled to neighbouring countries since April 2023, and the figures continue to increase, month-on-month. Arriving caseloads consistently exhibit emergency levels of malnutrition, as well as war wounds and protection abuses sustained en route. In several countries – Central Africa Republic, Chad, South Sudan - refugees are hosted in the poorest and most insecure regions of the country, without documentation and unable to access services or livelihood opportunities. The different caseloads are: • Egypt is the largest host of Sudanese refugees in the region, having received over 1.5 million Sudanese nationals since the conflict began. • Chad hosts over 917,000 refugees, plus almost 390,000 Chadian returnees from Sudan. Over the past year, Chad has received more refugees than during the previous two decades combined; over the past five months the majority have settled in the remote Ennedi Est province, which has the lowest humanitarian presence and funding in eastern Chad. • South Sudan has received over 1.3 million people, of whom over 865,000 are returnees, and over 435,000 Sudanese. An additional 320,000 arrivals are projected by the end of 2026. Main reception points and transit centres are operating far beyond their intended capacity, with mounting pressure on water, health, education and protection services. • Libya: UNHCR estimates that there are almost 555,000 refugees, though other credible estimates are as high as 750,000 due to large uncounted caseloads in Kufra district. • Central Africa Republic : UNHCR are reporting a caseload of almost 42,000 (comprising over 35,000 Sudanese, and almost 7,000 returnees): almost 13,000 are living in hard-to-reach areas in Vakaga prefecture, characterised by deteriorating security issues following the reduced presence of MINUSCA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR). • Ethiopia : UNHCR are reporting an influx of over 66,000 (comprising over 45,000 Sudanese and over 21,000 returnees), but registration is stalled, and UNHCR and partner presence is highly constrained in border areas of Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz and Tigray. • Uganda : UNHCR have reported the official registration of over 90,000 Sudanese refugees. However, the decision to remove prima facie refugee status in 2026 has raised concerns over increased vulnerability. The influx of refugees and returnees has overwhelmed transit centres, refugee camps and settlement sites and heightened tensions with host communities across the region. Some of the transit centres are operating at up to 400% of capacity. Many refugee camps and sites have insufficient services to address the scale of the needs - as food and cash distributions have been drastically cut. And as host communities face rising food prices and competition over access to health and education services, land and other resources, their vulnerability heightens, raising tensions and the risk of violence. Beyond the statistics, many face harrowing hardships. As they flee from conflict, and while in transit, Sudanese men, women and children continue to face numerous protection violations and risks such as human trafficking and smuggling-related abuses; kidnapping, ransom & extortion - especially in desert corridors; sexual violence in transit where women and girls face rape and coercion; family separation & child exploitation with unaccompanied minors at heightened risk of trafficking and abuse; death and physical abuse through exposure to violence and dehydration. Reports over the last three years reveal that limited funding for protection services in refugee hosting areas also exposes displaced populations to ongoing severe protection risks, including child labour and early marriage, gender-based violence, intercommunal violence, trafficking of women and girls, child soldier recruitment, and e

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