Aid groups call attention to Sudan with famine looming after a year of civil war

Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, ever since simmering tensions between its military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exploded into street clashes in the capital in mid-April 2023.

On a clear night a year ago, a dozen heavily armed fighters broke into Omaima Farouq’s house in an upscale neighbourhood in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. At gunpoint, they whipped and slapped the woman and terrorised her children. Then they expelled them from the fenced two-story house.

“Since then, our life has been ruined,” the 45-year-old schoolteacher said. “Everything has changed in this year.”

Ms. Farouq, a widow, and her four children now live in a small village outside the central city of Wad Madani, 136 km southeast of Khartoum. They depend on aid from villagers and philanthropists since international aid groups cannot reach the village.

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Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, ever since simmering tensions between its military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exploded into street clashes in the capital in mid-April 2023. The fighting rapidly spread across the country.

The conflict has been overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip, which since October has caused a massive humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and a threat of famine in the territory.

But relief workers said Sudan was hurtling towards an even larger-scale calamity of starvation. Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies have been unable to reach the worst-stricken regions.