Where Is Sudan and What Sparked the Sudan War?
Sudan, located in northeast Africa and bordered by Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Libya, has been engulfed in the devastating Sudan War since April 2023. The conflict erupted between two rival military forces — the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Their opponent, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). What began as a power struggle between two military leaders has evolved into one of the world’s most harrowing humanitarian disasters, where starvation itself has become a weapon of war.
While global headlines occasionally touch upon the Sudan War, few grasp the scale of suffering inflicted by hunger, displacement, and targeted persecution. The country—already vulnerable after years of instability—has now become a theatre where food is denied, aid is blocked, and civilians are intentionally starved into submission.
Starvation as a Weapon in the Sudan War
In the ongoing Sudan War, starvation has been systematically weaponized. Reports by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirm that both warring parties have obstructed humanitarian corridors, looted aid warehouses, and attacked food convoys. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 18 million people are currently facing acute food insecurity, and around 5 million are on the brink of famine.
Starvation is not an accidental byproduct of the Sudan and war—it is deliberate. The Rapid Support Forces have reportedly seized control of vital grain silos in Darfur and Kordofan, while the Sudanese Armed Forces have restricted the flow of humanitarian relief to RSF-held areas. The effect has been catastrophic: children dying from malnutrition, mothers boiling leaves to survive, and entire villages cut off from the outside world.
This is not mere negligence; it’s a calculated war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which defines “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” as a punishable act.
The Siege of Cities: Cutting Off Life Lines
Across Sudan, cities such as El Fasher, Nyala, and Geneina have been transformed into siege zones. During these blockades, both sides of the Sudan War have cut off trade routes, prevented humanitarian aid deliveries, and controlled food supplies to manipulate populations. Witnesses told Amnesty International that armed men deliberately burned granaries and agricultural fields to deny food to communities believed to support the rival side.
Satellite imagery released by the Conflict Observatory in late 2024 showed vast areas of scorched farmland across Darfur—once Sudan’s breadbasket—destroyed. Farmers who tried to plant were threatened or killed, creating a man-made famine that now grips the region.
The Targeting of the Masalit and Fur Muslim Communities
While the Sudan War has affected millions, the Masalit and Fur Muslim communities in West Darfur have endured an especially brutal campaign. Entire neighborhoods of these communities in Geneina were besieged and starved, with survivors recounting how the RSF and allied militias restricted access to water and food markets.
According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of Masalit civilians have been killed since mid-2023. Many survivors fled to Chad, reporting that men were executed and women raped, while remaining villagers were left to die of hunger. Although both sides claim to defend Islam, their actions against fellow Muslim civilians expose a profound moral and humanitarian hypocrisy.
The Sudan War is therefore not only a military conflict but a crisis of conscience—where starvation and persecution are inflicted upon people sharing the same faith.
How Starvation Became a Strategy
In warfare, control over food and resources often dictates power. But in the Sudan War, this logic has been taken to extremes. Both factions exploit starvation as a tool to punish regions perceived to support the rival force, to recruit desperate civilians by exchanging food for loyalty, and to force displacement that allows territorial control.
The World Food Programme has suspended operations in several areas after multiple attacks on aid convoys. In South Kordofan and Blue Nile, aerial bombardments have destroyed markets and food stores, leaving civilians with no access to supplies. Aid trucks have been looted, warehouses torched, and humanitarian workers assaulted.
The result is a famine engineered through military policy—a tactic that mirrors other modern conflicts like Syria and Yemen, where hunger was also deployed as a weapon.
Health Crisis Amid Famine
Starvation in the Sudan War has unleashed a secondary humanitarian catastrophe: a full-scale health collapse. Malnourishment weakens immunity, making communities vulnerable to cholera, measles, and malaria outbreaks. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that over 70% of Sudan’s hospitals in conflict areas are nonfunctional.
In displacement camps, especially around Port Sudan and Kassala, children are dying from treatable diseases simply because food and medicine cannot reach them. Health workers recount stories of infants with distended bellies and skeletal frames—a haunting echo of the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
Religious and Ethnic Dimensions of Hunger
The Sudan War has revealed a grim pattern: starvation is not used randomly but selectively. In Darfur, Masalit and Fur Muslim communities—already survivors of the 2003 genocide—are once again being starved into extinction. In Khartoum, residents of working-class Muslim neighborhoods who opposed both factions face deliberate economic blockades.
This targeted deprivation amounts to collective punishment, a grave breach of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Experts from the UN Human Rights Council have warned that the use of starvation against particular ethnic and religious groups could qualify as genocide under international law.
Children on the Brink
Among the most tragic victims of the Sudan War are children. Over 3 million children under five are acutely malnourished, according to UNICEF. In several camps, humanitarian staff have documented infants sharing a single meal per day. Many mothers, unable to produce milk due to starvation, resort to feeding babies water mixed with flour or grass.
One volunteer from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) described a child named Abdulrahman, who died weighing less than six kilograms at the age of four. His village, once fertile, had been cut off from aid for months. Such cases are multiplying, showing how famine is being weaponized to erase an entire generation.
Women, Survival, and the Burden of War
Starvation affects men and women differently. In the Sudan War, women not only suffer hunger but carry the responsibility of finding food for their families amid immense danger. In many regions, women have been attacked or sexually assaulted while searching for firewood or water.
In displacement camps across White Nile State, groups of women form “hunger circles,” sharing whatever small portions they can gather. Despite the trauma, they’ve become the backbone of community survival—proving that even amid systematic starvation, resilience endures.
The Information Blackout and Global Indifference
One of the reasons the starvation crisis in the Sudan War remains underreported is the near-total information blackout. Internet access is frequently shut down, journalists are targeted, and humanitarian agencies struggle to communicate from within besieged areas.
Meanwhile, global attention is fixated elsewhere—Ukraine, Gaza, and the U.S. elections—leaving Sudan’s tragedy largely invisible. Yet, as the UN warns, the Sudan War has already displaced more than 10 million people, becoming the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
This silence, both political and media-driven, compounds the suffering. Starvation thrives not only on the absence of food but also on the absence of outrage.
International Law and the Crime of Starvation
Under international humanitarian law, intentionally starving civilians is unequivocally illegal. The Rome Statute, Geneva Conventions, and Additional Protocols I and II classify it as a war crime and, in certain cases, as a crime against humanity.
Despite this, accountability in the Sudan War remains elusive. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over Darfur crimes but has yet to open new investigations into starvation tactics used since 2023. The UN Security Council has failed to pass binding resolutions, blocked by geopolitical divides.
The absence of justice emboldens perpetrators and perpetuates impunity—turning hunger into a legitimate military tool in modern conflicts.
A Humanitarian Response Strangled by Politics
Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly appealed for funding, yet the response remains grossly inadequate. The 2024 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan was only 27% funded as of September. Aid agencies, already stretched thin, face enormous risks on the ground.
In a tragic irony, even as the Sudan War rages, tons of food aid lie stuck in Port Sudan warehouses due to bureaucratic blockages and military restrictions. Relief trucks cannot move without security clearances from both sides, effectively transforming aid into another weapon of negotiation.
The Moral Cost of Silence
The tragedy of the Sudan War extends far beyond its borders. It raises a haunting question for humanity: How many must starve before the world calls it a war crime?
When entire Muslim communities like the Masalit and Fur are deliberately deprived of food, when children die with empty stomachs, and when global powers remain silent, starvation becomes not only a weapon—but a verdict on our collective morality.
History will remember not only those who waged the Sudan War, but also those who looked away.
The moral cost of silence is measured in lives lost to hunger, dignity stripped by famine, and the slow, unseen deaths of millions who deserved the world’s attention—but were denied even that.
FAQs on the Sudan War and Starvation as a Weapon
1. What is happening in the Sudan War right now?
The Sudan War is an ongoing internal conflict that has plunged millions of civilians into a humanitarian catastrophe. Armed groups continue fighting for power, and the deliberate use of starvation has become one of the most alarming tactics in the Sudan War. Entire regions are blockaded, food routes destroyed, and aid convoys looted, leaving people to die from hunger rather than bullets.
2. How is starvation being used as a weapon in the Sudan War?
In the Sudan War, starvation is not accidental — it is a systematic weapon of control. Rival factions deliberately cut off food supplies, destroy farms, and block humanitarian access to force civilian populations into submission. Villages in Darfur, Khartoum, and Kordofan have been encircled, and millions face acute malnutrition because starvation has become a military strategy in the Sudan War.
3. Who are the main victims of starvation in the Sudan War?
The victims of the Sudan War are primarily civilians — farmers, children, and displaced families — many of whom belong to marginalized religious or ethnic groups. Both Muslim and Christian communities have been targeted, making the Sudan War one of the worst cases of religious persecution and hunger-based warfare in modern Africa.
4. Why is the international community silent on the Sudan War?
The global silence surrounding the Sudan War reflects political fatigue and competing international crises. Despite clear evidence that starvation and civilian deaths amount to war crimes, the Sudan War receives limited media coverage and diplomatic urgency. The lack of accountability allows famine, disease, and religious persecution to worsen with every passing month.
5. Is starvation in the Sudan War considered a war crime?
Yes. Under international humanitarian law, deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime. In the Sudan War, evidence shows that factions intentionally prevent food and medicine from reaching besieged populations. The International Criminal Court has noted that starvation in the Sudan War qualifies as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.
6. How many people are affected by hunger in the Sudan War?
More than 20 million people are facing severe food insecurity due to the Sudan War. According to humanitarian agencies, nearly half the population of Sudan requires urgent food aid, and many are on the brink of famine. The Sudan War has disrupted agriculture, destroyed markets, and displaced millions, making starvation a defining feature of this brutal conflict.
