Sudan war sparks ‘worse-ever humanitarian crisis’ amid this year’s most violent fighting

Sudan has topped a watchlist of ‘biggest humanitarian crises’, International Rescue Committee (IRC) has said, just as at least 175 people have been reported dead and dozens injured following a series of airstrikes that shook the country’s capital in the past few days.

The war-torn African country has become the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded” for the second year in a row in a report released by the IRC on Wednesday (11 December). Highlighting the 20 countries at greatest risk of humanitarian deterioration, the IRC’s report ranked Sudan highest on its ‘2025 Emergency Watchlist’ because it “accounts for 10% of all people in humanitarian need, despite being home to less than 1% of global population.” The New York-based organization also said a total of 30.4 million Sudanese were in humanitarian need in the war-torn African country after 20 months of devastating war between rival generals.

This comes as the latest series of clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed lives of at least 127 people, mostly civilians. In separate incidents across the country, air strikes hit a busy market in the town of Kabkabiya, reportedly killing at least 100 civilians including women and children, a passenger bus, killing everyone on board, and at least 65 people were killed in Omdurman, Sudan’s second largest city. This week’s clashes are described as this year’s most violent between both warring sides who have been fighting each other since April 2023, with civilian areas indiscriminately targeted by both groups as ceasefire efforts have stalled.