Sudan: 1,000 days of crisis
The following is a statement from Caritas Internationalis issued on the 1,000 day anniversary of the conflict in Sudan.
9 January 2026 – ROME - Caritas Internationalis urges the international community to #KeepEyesOnSudan
Today, 9 January, marks 1,000 days of conflict in Sudan – one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises – where more than 33.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, effectively two in three people, and where famine has been declared twice in less than a year.
At this time, Caritas Internationalis joins other leading aid agencies in urging the international community to act now to prevent further catastrophe in Sudan.
Conflict has driven the collapse of livelihoods and services, with an estimated 70 to 80 per cent of hospitals and health facilities affected and non-operational, leaving roughly 65 per cent of the population without access to healthcare. Sudan is also in the midst of the world’s largest food crisis, with close to 21.2 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Displaced people are forced into more precarious conditions in unsafe settlements, experiencing overcrowding or living in makeshift shelters, hunger and disease outbreaks, requiring higher needs which are harder to meet with reduced funding.
Sharp cuts in foreign assistance have further weakened humanitarian operations, stripping funding from essential programmes, meaning people won’t have enough to eat and feed their families, have access to basic healthcare, clean water and sanitation, or a safe place to live, with a heightened risk of gender based violence.
Amidst sweeping hunger and displacement, the conflict has exacerbated violence against women. Demand for services for women has increased by 288%, since December 2023, leaving survivors in dire need of medical care and trauma support, and yet the women-led initiatives that play a crucial role in services for women have received less than 2% of the critically-underfunded Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF).
Global aid cuts have impacted dramatically on the level of support that Caritas partners have been able to provide. For example, our teams were providing support for safe drinking water, hygiene and protection to five hundred thousand displaced people in White Nile State, under a UNHCR grant, which has come to an due to aid cuts. No other donor has yet stepped in to support that work, although Church partners continue to support those that they can, with less than six percent of the funding that UNHCR had previously provided.
Alistair Dutton, Caritas Internationalis Secretary General, stressed that the brutality and inhumanity of the conflict in Sudan are appalling and famine has been declared for the second time in less than a year. Caritas local partners in Sudan work in face of danger, suffering and escalating needs daily that are inconceivable to the rest of us.
“As Sudan reaches one thousand days of war, the international community must act with urgency to bring about an end to the violence. Donor governments which cut their aid budgets must see the cruelty of that in Sudan, and look again at how they can mobilise more support for life-saving efforts in this most horrific of wars.”- Alistair Dutton, Caritas Internationalis Secretary General
According to Dutton, “it is the people of Sudan themselves who are doing the hard work of supporting their neighbours, family members and people displaced in many cases multiple times from location to location, as the conflict shifts and spreads. Their efforts to save lives and their fellow citizens’ dignity and meet their basic needs deserve our support. At one thousand days of war, we are supporting the #KeepEyesOnSudan campaign to help bring the public, media and political spotlight to their efforts.”
Specific recommendations to governments endorsed by Caritas Internationalis and other humanitarian agencies around the 1000 Days of War moment are:
Scale-up diplomatic efforts, including through the UN Security Council, to push for an immediate, nationwide ceasefire as the first step towards lasting peace.
Protect civilians, aid workers and local emergency responders by backing efforts to prevent further attacks, atrocities and international humanitarian law violations.
Secure rapid, safe, sustained humanitarian access across Sudan, especially to conflict-affected and besieged areas, so aid can reach every community in need.
Increase funding now, especially to local aid groups and women-led organisations, to help stop catastrophic levels of hunger spreading further and provide life-saving assistance and services, especially to women and children forced to flee their homes.
Support a regional response to this crisis, working with neighbouring countries to increase humanitarian assistance to refugees, enable safe cross-border access for humanitarian aid, and prevent the conflict from spreading further.
Across the Caritas Confederation, members are turning these demands into concrete public action. One example is CAFOD’s petition calling on decision-makers in the UK to act urgently to protect civilians and address the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan.
Caritas Italiana has also joined the action and launched an appeal to the Italian government to support Sudan.