Displacement and Refugee Flows

A Country in Motion

Sudan has been producing refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) for decades. The second civil war (1983-2005) displaced over four million people. The Darfur crisis beginning in 2003 displaced another 2.5 million. But the 2023 war has created displacement on an entirely different scale. Within the first year of fighting, over eight million people were displaced — making Sudan the world's largest displacement crisis, surpassing even Ukraine and Syria.

Of these, roughly six million were internally displaced within Sudan, while over two million crossed into neighboring countries. Chad, already one of the world's poorest countries, absorbed over half a million Sudanese refugees — mostly from Darfur — in border regions that had minimal infrastructure before the influx. Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic also received significant numbers.

Patterns of Flight

Displacement in Sudan follows patterns shaped by geography, ethnicity, and the nature of the violence. In Darfur, entire communities have been ethnically cleansed — Masalit civilians from El Geneina fled en masse to Chad after RSF and allied militia attacks in 2023 that killed thousands. Survivors described systematic killings, mass rape, and the deliberate burning of homes that left nothing to return to.

In Khartoum, displacement follows a different pattern. The capital's residents — many of them already internally displaced from earlier conflicts — fled the urban warfare between SAF and RSF. Middle-class families drove to Port Sudan, Wad Madani, or across the border to Egypt. Poorer residents, unable to afford transport, were trapped in neighborhoods turned into battlefields. The war thus compounded existing inequalities: those with resources could flee; those without could not.

Sudan is also, paradoxically, a host country. Before the 2023 war, Sudan hosted over one million refugees from South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and other neighbors. These refugee populations were themselves displaced again by the fighting, creating a crisis within a crisis.

Long-Term Consequences

Mass displacement does not end when fighting stops. Darfur's IDP camps, established in 2003-2004, still housed hundreds of thousands of people two decades later — people who had never been able to return home because their land was occupied by others or their villages had been destroyed. The same pattern is now being replicated on a vastly larger scale.

Displacement disrupts education, healthcare, and economic activity for years. Children born in camps grow up without access to quality schooling. Agricultural production collapses when farmers flee their land. The professional class — doctors, engineers, teachers — emigrates permanently, draining the human capital Sudan will need for any future recovery. The displacement crisis is not just a humanitarian emergency; it is destroying the social fabric that would be needed to rebuild the country.