Sudan has been ranked the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which released its 2025 Emergency Watchlist on Wednesday. The country, torn by nearly 20 months of conflict between rival military factions, now accounts for 10% of the global humanitarian need despite comprising less than 1% of the world’s population. A staggering 30.4 million people in Sudan require humanitarian assistance, surpassing any crisis previously documented.
The war, which erupted in April 2023 between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced 12 million people. Of these, nearly nine million remain within Sudan’s borders, many in regions with devastated infrastructure and dire food shortages. Acute hunger now grips nearly 26 million people—half the country’s population—while famine has been officially declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in Darfur.
With no resolution to the war in sight, both factions have ramped up strikes on residential areas, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation. The United Nations has described Sudan’s plight as the worst humanitarian disaster in recent memory, warning of mass starvation and further displacement if immediate action is not taken.
