Sudan: Three years of war in five shocking numbers

On the morning of Saturday 15 April 2023, airstrikes and gunfire began at sites across Sudan.  

Three years on, what started as a clash between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has spiralled into perhaps the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Now, as we mark this sobering milestone, here are five numbers that show the scale of the suffering and the vital need for increased humanitarian aid and effective political action. 

The situation in Sudan has been called the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. However, after three years of extreme violence, the situation has compounded: entire communities have been displaced, infrastructure has been destroyed, and aid consistently blocked. Millions now face acute food insecurity and recurring disease outbreaks. From the very first moments of the crisis, MSF teams have been responding – from running clinics in mass displacement camps to emergency surgery for gunshot victims caught in the crossfire. 

Sudan is experiencing the world’s largest displacement crisis. Since April 2023, more than 9 million people who have fled the violence are now internally displaced – most living in overcrowded and unsafe camps where 55 percent are under 18 years old. Meanwhile, a further 4.5 million are seeking safety in neighbouring countries – mostly Chad and South Sudan – where refugees face a lack of access to critical services and face economic hardship. At times, MSF medical teams based at border towns have treated huge influxes of wounded people fleeing heavy fighting.

In 2025, a staggering 82 percent of all global deaths from attacks on healthcare occurred in Sudan. And, since the start of 2026 to mid-March, a further 11 attacks have killed 46 people and injured 28. But the true scale of the crisis is almost certainly underreported. Both SAF and RSF have attacked and obstructed humanitarian aid projects, medical staff and healthcare facilities. These frequent and violent acts are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law that not only puts lives in immediate danger but also disrupts healthcare for the communities that depend on it. 

MSF advocacy efforts – including a speech at the UN Security Council – have called for unhindered humanitarian access to be guaranteed, civilians and healthcare to be protected, and for humanitarian law to be upheld. 

Sexual violence has become a defining feature of the Sudan civil war. MSF reporting has uncovered widespread and systematic attacks on women and girls that have surged more than 350 percent since the conflict began. In the Darfur region in particular, MSF teams have treated at least 3,396 survivors between January 2024 and November 2025 – around 97 percent women and girls. The violence goes far beyond frontlines, with rapes reported in farms, markets, displacement camps and along escape routes from under-siege cities. 

Chronic food insecurity and a decimated healthcare system mean that those most vulnerable are suffering the consequences of three years of conflict. Routine vaccination programmes have collapsed, driving outbreaks of deadly but preventable conditions, while maternal and child mortality rates are reversing after years of hard-won progress in Sudan. Right now, MSF has more than 2,000 staff responding across Sudan, delivering vital services that include maternal and paediatric care, as well as routine and reactive vaccination campaigns to protect those most in need.