Sudan: Famine strikes the people amid the chaos of war

“Nearly 2,000 refugees have arrived at the Kriyo camp at different times after fleeing several Sudanese cities,” Ibrahim Weil, one of the officials at Kriyo camp in East Darfur State, told Darfur24.

Sudan has been witnessing a war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces since mid-April 2023, which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 200,000 people, according to estimates, while the United Nations says that more than 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Ibrahim Weil explained on October 6, 2026, that the newly arrived refugees do not have food ration cards, preventing them from benefiting from assistance provided by the World Food Programme (WFP). He added: “They are dealt with by dividing the share of each individual already residing with them to stave off their hunger for a short period, after which the suffering begins anew.”

Weil called on humanitarian organizations and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to intervene urgently to regularize the status of the newly arrived refugees and include them among the lists of aid beneficiaries.

According to the newspaper, Kriyo camp is the largest refugee camp in East Darfur State, housing around 37,000 refugees from South Sudan, most of them people who fled previous conflicts, while East Darfur State has witnessed increasing waves of displacement since the outbreak of the war on April 15, 2023.

These camps are facing mounting pressure as international organizations’ funding has dried up and food rations have been reduced, exacerbating the severity of hunger, particularly among newly displaced people who have not been registered.

War Engulfs Sudan

As the war continues, Sudanese fear that the country could turn into a major hub for terrorism worldwide, particularly given Sudan’s position at the crossroads of countries with fragile security, while army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has declared that the war will not end except through a military victory.

Earlier, Dr. Essam Abbas, an information technology and data analysis consultant, warned that Sudan was moving rapidly toward becoming a “hub for terrorism” unless the war stopped immediately and urgent measures were taken to rebuild the Sudanese state on new foundations.

In an interview broadcast by Radio Dabanga, he said that “political turmoil, the ‘Islamist extremists’’ control of the reins of power for three decades, from 1989 until the fall of their regime, and their entry into the current war with their full weight and at the forefront, in addition to their extensive ties with extremist Islamist groups, clearly indicate that Sudan is on its way—if we do not avert this now—to becoming the largest hub for terrorism and violent extremism and a threat to international peace and security.”

He noted that the state’s failure to resolve the deteriorating political and economic situation, followed by the outbreak of war, had helped create a fertile environment for extremist groups to operate.

The war has caused the collapse of the national economy and a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, marked by rising levels of hunger, the destruction of infrastructure, the disruption of factories, the displacement of workers, the suspension of agricultural projects, and the deterioration of grazing lands and the environment supporting livestock wealth.

Stoking Public Anger Against al-Burhan

Meanwhile, an unannounced appearance by army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at an event inside Khartoum Stadium in support of the health sector turned into a sweeping protest scene against him by the Sudanese public.

Commenting on the events, Mohamed al-Faki, a leading figure in the “Sumoud” alliance and a former member of the Sovereignty Council, said in a press statement: “The continued public anger directed at al-Burhan demonstrates the street’s rejection of the project of war and destruction,” noting that al-Burhan had previously attempted to mobilize the public through marches that set out from mosques, but had faced resounding failure.

He added that “the Muslim Brotherhood has begun deliberately tightening the isolation around al-Burhan; the group’s platforms obstructed the organization of marches in his support and published reports on the economic crisis as a form of ‘preparing the field’ and pressuring him to prevent him from moving toward any political solution or understandings with the international community without providing the group with full guarantees.”

The Sudanese political figure stressed that “the Muslim Brotherhood is the one that initially ignited the spark of war in order to return to the seats of power,” noting that the group is bargaining with al-Burhan and demanding guarantees and decisive positions from him to continue fighting to the end in exchange for its political cover for him.

Efforts to Restructure the Sovereignty Council

Amid these developments, an informed source told Sahih Sudan that the files related to the army’s use of chemical weapons, as well as the photographs and videos linked to the manufacture of chlorine bombs that were published in international newspapers, were leaked by the director of the General Intelligence and Security Service, Lieutenant General Ahmed Mufaddal.

According to Sahih Sudan, “Mufaddal’s role at this point is aimed at internationally cornering General al-Burhan by establishing the occurrence of crimes involving the use of chlorine gas, with the aim of removing him and the military group controlling the de facto government in Port Sudan.”

It explained that Mufaddal “is doing so through coordination with a group of Islamist leaders who have ties with numerous countries in the region, in addition to opening discussions with international powers with the aim of changing the face of the current military authority.”

It pointed to the role played by Salah Gosh with ousted President Omar al-Bashir by creating and multiplying crises to topple Bashir from power through an internal move, before the December Revolution cut that path short.

The source confirmed “that the director of the General Intelligence and Security Service is currently in contact with a number of international and regional organizations concerned with the use of internationally prohibited weapons, as well as a number of international actors, with the aim of ousting the coup leader and replacing him with a new group of Islamist officers who are not implicated, or whose names have not appeared, in files related to the use of chemical weapons.”

Following the circulation of the file on the army’s use of chemical weapons, a journalist close to military intelligence circles in Port Sudan wrote that a senior figure within the authorities had leaked those files to foreign countries, without identifying the individual, according to the newspaper.

“A Stab in the Back”

The security source told the newspaper that “those files and audio correspondence linked to army commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, as well as correspondence with Islamist officer Brigadier General Tarek Hussein Mohamed Madani, who is accused of manufacturing chlorine bombs, in addition to videos showing the manufacture of the bombs and the sites where those operations took place, were leaked to regional and international intelligence agencies by General Mufaddal.”

The newspaper noted that General Mufaddal had begun playing a role similar to that played by his predecessor, Salah Gosh, with ousted President Omar al-Bashir, as “Mufaddal is currently working to embroil the army commander in numerous files related to violations, the commission of war crimes, and the use of internationally prohibited weapons.”

It continued: According to the materials that the source said Mufaddal had leaked to regional and international intelligence agencies, they include “correspondence between al-Burhan and an army officer in December 2024, three months after attacks that the United States said Sudan had carried out using chlorine gas against Rapid Support Forces positions at the Al-Jaili oil refinery and the Qari military base north of Khartoum.”

According to the newspaper, that conversation “also contained, alongside numerous other files, information indicating that hundreds of chlorine bombs had been assembled and stored at Merowe Air Base, a major Sudanese Air Force facility, and that 106 of those bombs had been used.”

It also included “a separate message, believed to have been sent to an armed forces officer involved in the airstrikes, containing a video of a person who appeared to be one of the victims of the war, whose skin had been charred. The message read: ‘This is your handiwork,’ or literally: ‘Your cooking.’”