Starvation Warfare in Sudan’s Forgotten War

November 18th, 2025
Sophia Amuundgard

The blood of over 150,000 massacred Sudanese civilians can now be seen from space. Still, the world’s worst displacement is also its most forgotten, leaving two of every three civilians in need of aid.

Sudan is quickly reliving the 1983-2005 Civil War that claimed the lives of 2 million, engaging in a brutal genocide that has displaced upwards of 14 million civilians. Sparked in April 2023, the conflict between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has left over 25 million people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.

Concerningly, the global spotlight on Sudan is only shrinking as the Trump Administration dismantles the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—once responsible for saving the lives of 6.7 million Sudanese civilians. Following an 83% funding cut, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the closing of 70% of hospitals has left 5 million civilians without access to life-saving medical care, leaving just 2% of the nation’s population with medical connections.

Concerningly, Washington was also once responsible for 44% of the already minimal aid sent to Sudan. As President Donald Trump expands his America First Foreign Policy plan, USAID cuts will only continue to plague the nation’s stability; “There have been many crises in Sudan which have affected the work of the humanitarian sector, but the USAID cuts have been the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Muna Eltahir, a seasoned Sudanese humanitarian worker.

Yet, even as the international community pledges over $380bn in support for Ukraine, Sudan’s humanitarian $4.2bn appeal is still just 27% funded by the international community—sinking the conflict deeper into global oblivion.

But the international community must remember. As 21.2 million Sudanese civilians face acute food insecurity, an additional 638,000 suffer from severe hunger, the highest global population percentage. Famine has also starved Al-Fashir since March 2024 as the nation’s estimated malnutrition-derived fatality rate doubles to 12%, though analysts suggest the number is likely substantially greater.

Even so, the generational implications of long-term starvation are, at an amplified level, concerning as starvation-induced small RNAs have been found to transmit the impacts of famine genetically. As the duration of the Sudanese Civil War surpasses three years, malnutrition’s toll on the nation’s societal rebuilding is expanding as well.

These effects are increasingly imminent as the conflict is pushed farther to the sidelines and RSF forces function under the understanding that the “war will not end through negotiations or a truce but through defeating the rebellion,” and, after countless violations of the November ceasefire, analysts still see no end in sight for the war.

Though the WHO estimates more funding could expand its monthly reach by 8 million, it isn’t just a lack of aid contributing to Sudan’s hunger crisis: it’s tactical starvation.

As in 1987, the Sudanese government blocked the transport of nutrition aid and blockaded the Dinka people in the south, stricken with severe drought. RSF forces are reapplying hunger tactics to win their war. Aid workers now report that the RSF has, since 2024, imposed new restrictions, demanding higher fees and oversight of operational procedures, and requiring aid groups to register with the RSF-operated and owned aid administration body, the Sudan Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations.

Tragically, this strategy has garnered a similar level of success as its preceding form, exacerbated by a lack of international condemnation. In the 1980s, the US government’s reaction to such a calamity was underwhelming, culminating in the passage of a singular, condemning letter. Similarly, three years into one of the decade’s deadliest conflicts, the United Nations gave its first green light to RSF massacre investigations in November 2025.

The international community may be forgetting Sudan, but its Sudanese civilians in Darfur and Kordofan, eating leaves, weeds and charcoal who are living the gutting reality of starvation warfare daily. It’s clear, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis must be remembered now more than ever before.