Renewed fighting in Sudan's Blue Nile state — a region in the country's southeast, bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan — has forced fresh waves of families into already overcrowded displacement camps, compounding what the United Nations now describes as a survival crisis for millions of people. Sudanese army advances in the area have driven residents from their homes into sites such as al-Karama 5 camp, where severe water shortages and fears of flooding and disease have become daily realities for both long-term and newly arrived inhabitants.
The military offensive in Blue Nile state is one front in a broader conflict that erupted on 15 April 2023, when fighting broke out between Sudan's army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. More than three years of war have hollowed out the country's basic services, shattered agricultural production, and dismantled health infrastructure, allowing diseases including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and measles to spread widely.
The scale of suffering is staggering. Sudan is now home to the largest displacement crisis in the world, with at least 11 million people uprooted — more than four million of whom have crossed into neighbouring countries. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis, published on 14 May 2026, approximately 19.5 million people — around 41 percent of Sudan's population — face acute food insecurity, with conditions expected to worsen during the lean season between June and September. Famine has not yet been formally declared in any area, but analysts warn that 14 zones across North Darfur, South Darfur, and South Kordofan remain at serious risk if fighting intensifies or humanitarian access is further restricted.
Children are bearing a disproportionate share of the crisis. Around 825,000 children under the age of five are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition in 2026 — a figure 25 percent above pre-war levels. Thousands more have lost access to education as schools have been closed or converted into shelters. UNICEF has warned that an entire generation faces not only hunger and disease but also forced recruitment, violence, psychological trauma, and the permanent loss of educational opportunities. Women and girls face heightened risks of sexual violence, repeated displacement, and severely restricted access to reproductive healthcare.
The humanitarian crisis is inseparable from the absence of a political solution. The United Nations has repeatedly called on both the Sudanese army and the RSF to halt hostilities and agree a humanitarian ceasefire that would open safe corridors for aid delivery. Some humanitarian organisations, including the International Rescue Committee, estimate that the death toll may already exceed 150,000, though precise figures remain impossible to verify. As army advances continue in Blue Nile state and the lean season approaches, aid agencies warn that without an immediate and sustained political breakthrough, Sudan risks sliding into one of the gravest humanitarian disasters the world has seen.