While global attention has been fixed on Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Sudan remains, with roughly 12 million people forced from their homes.
“Sudan is shrouded in the darkest of clouds, a disaster that has, for far too long, been met with inaction by the international community,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the House Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee, stated during his opening remarks at a December 11 hearing on crimes against humanity in Sudan.
Smith noted the hearing served as a global call to action and emphasized the need for an immediate halt to hostilities between the warring groups.
“Crimes against humanity — particularly by the Rapid Support Forces — including mass rape and systematic looting, must be investigated, and those responsible held accountable,” Smith added.
The Sudanese conflict has drawn renewed focus after President Donald Trump pledged to secure a peace agreement in the African nation following his November meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently reported that repeated drone strikes on December 4 in Sudan’s South Kordofan region targeted a kindergarten and a nearby hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children.
“Shockingly, paramedics and responders came under attack while attempting to transport the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital,” Tedros said in a statement.
The Sudan Doctors Network, a medical organization, identified the Rapid Support Forces as the perpetrators of the attacks.
The conflict in Sudan has raged since April 2023, when a fragile alliance between Sudan’s two warring factions — the government-led Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — collapsed after a tenuous 2021 power-sharing agreement.
Sudan’s army and the RSF had cooperated for years under the former regime of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir.
The situation has only worsened since fighting erupted in 2023 and has not spurred the same level of international effort or outrage as conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
“The war in Sudan has been one of the most brutal humanitarian disasters in world history. Yet, world leaders and international institutions have often been inactive in addressing it, alongside diminished and inconsistent media coverage of the conflict,” Caroline Rose, director of Military and National Security Priorities at New Lines Institute, told Digital.
“This may be due to the fact that, unlike wars in Ukraine and Gaza, there is no element of great-power competition or regional rivalry involved,” she added.
Rose and other conflict observers point out that limited ground access creates challenges not only for journalistic reporting but also for documenting war crimes and collecting testimonies.
The Sudanese armed forces have restricted access for aid workers in territories they control, citing sovereignty, and have expelled humanitarian workers previously operating in the country.
The RSF has also been accused of severe human rights abuses, including the reported killing of over 400 aid workers and patients in October at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in the North Darfur city of El Fasher. The incident caused at least 28,000 people to flee to neighboring towns, and the accused the RSF of “summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks on humanitarian workers, looting, abductions, and forced displacement.”
Even as the Trump administration works toward a ceasefire between the warring factions, the violence continues.
Tom Perriello, the former U.S. special envoy for Sudan, said in September that he estimates up to 400,000 people have been killed since the violence began in 2023. A recent article in put the death toll at 100,000, referring to it as the “forgotten war.”
Beyond the deaths, various groups estimate over 30 million people require humanitarian aid, and around 21.2 million — 45% of the population — face high levels of acute food insecurity.