Khartoum (Diplomat.so) - The International Organization for Migration said Sunday that nearly 15 million Sudanese people have been displaced internally or forced to flee abroad since war erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, marking one of the world's largest displacement crises.
The United Nations migration agency said the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has driven displacement levels to unprecedented levels across the country’s 18 states.
According to updated figures released by the organization, the number of internally displaced people increased from 3.8 million in 2023 to approximately 11.58 million by 2025, representing an increase of more than 200 percent.
The organization reported that Sudan recorded 805 separate displacement waves since the conflict began, averaging one new displacement event every 33 hours. In several months, the country experienced as many as 88 displacement waves as fighting spread between urban centers and rural areas.
Families escaping violence sought shelter in nearly 13,000 displacement and refuge sites nationwide, including schools, unfinished buildings, camps, and temporary community shelters, according to the agency’s data.
"Communities continue to face repeated displacement as insecurity expands and humanitarian access remains constrained,” an International Organization for Migration spokesperson said in a statement accompanying the data release.
Residents in several displacement centers described worsening humanitarian conditions amid overcrowding and shortages of food, medicine, and clean water. Aid workers in eastern Sudan told Diplomat News Network that many newly displaced families arrived carrying only essential belongings after traveling for days through active conflict zones.
At a temporary shelter site in Kassala State, volunteer coordinator Ahmed Idris said hundreds of families continued arriving weekly despite reduced fighting in some regions. "People are exhausted and uncertain about whether conditions are safe enough to return home permanently,” he said.
The organization said approximately 8.9 million people remain displaced inside Sudan despite a 23 percent decline from the peak of the crisis. The figure, however, remains more than double pre-war displacement levels.
Data released by the agency also showed that nearly 4 million people have returned to their areas of origin. About 83 percent of those returns involved internally displaced residents, while 17 percent returned from neighboring host countries.
The displacement crisis has also been intensified by natural disasters, including floods and fires, which forced more than 250,000 additional people to leave their homes, the organization added.
The war between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated critical infrastructure across the country. The United Nations has repeatedly described Sudan’s humanitarian emergency as the world’s worst ongoing displacement and hunger crisis, with regional instability increasingly affecting neighboring countries and international relief operations.
