The Tragedies of War in Sudan: Reality and Solutions
(Translated)
Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 612 - 12/08/2026
By: Ustadh Nasser Redha*

The war in Sudan, now in its fourth month of its fourth year, has become the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, according to the United Nations and its agencies. This war has claimed more than 40,000 lives, left hundreds of thousands wounded and injured, and displaced millions, forcing them from their homes. This includes approximately 12 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 4.5 million refugees in neighboring countries, according to reports from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Three million IDPs have returned to their homes, and around 600,000 refugees have fled neighboring countries, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in April 2026. This has had a devastating impact on the economy, with the unemployment rate soaring to 80%, compared to 32% before the war. Five million people have lost their source of income, according to reports from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in April 2026, between 3 and 6 million people were suffering and living in what were described as the harshest conditions, and grain production had declined by 22%.

On the same date, a UNICEF report stated that 4.2 million children were suffering from acute malnutrition, with 825,000 of them in a life-threatening condition without treatment.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of April 2026, more than 21 million people were in need of health services, and 37% of health facilities remained out of service. These facilities had been subjected to more than 217 attacks, resulting in the deaths of 2,052 medical personnel and staff, and injuries to 810 others. Buildings were also damaged through looting and destruction, including 60% of pharmacies and drug warehouses.

Furthermore, 3,493 industrial facilities were destroyed or looted, representing 90% of the industrial sector.
Regarding education, the war had displaced 17 million students, including 8 million children deprived of their right to education, in what a UNICEF report described as one of the world's worst education crises.

All schools and universities have either been destroyed and looted, or converted into camps for displaced people or military barracks. An Al Jazeera report states that approximately 120 universities and university colleges in Khartoum State were looted and destroyed, along with six universities in other states, including four in Darfur.

In a statement to AFP, the Sudanese Minister of Social Affairs said that the ministry had recorded 1,800 cases of rape up to October 2025, not including those in Darfur and Kordofan. Official reports indicated that the rapes included children as young as one-year-old. Cases of women and children being abducted and sold in neighboring countries were also documented. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in April 2026 that 33.7 million people in Sudan, two out of every three people, required humanitarian assistance, making it the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

On the security and political front, America, which ignited the war between its two proxies, Burhan and Hemedti, is keen to perpetuate the conflict in the style of fourth-generation warfare. They extinguish it in one region only to reignite it in another, as the architect of dirty wars, Max Manning, said, “We manage the crisis, we don’t offer a cure.” Their aim is to slowly erode the state, neither achieving a military victory nor offering political solutions. Instead, they maneuver to secure their interests in the country by separating Darfur and further dividing the rest of Sudan. This was evident in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry's endorsement of South Sudan's annexation of Abyei and its disavowal of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, rather than declaring war on them.

We can neither stop the meddling of America and Western countries in our affairs, nor can we eradicate the seeds of division and discord among Muslims, except by returning to the tenets and Shariah rulings of Islam. It is only the Deen of Islam that unifies us. Allah (swt) said, [إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ] “The believers are but one brotherhood” [TMQ Surah Al-Hujurat, 49:10].

The Shariah rulings of Islam forbid us from allying with the disbelievers and allowing them to control the affairs of the Ummah. This will only happen if the Ummah reclaims its usurped authority and pledges allegiance to an Imam who will establish the Deen, both in Aqeedah (doctrine) and Shariah legislation, in the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood.

* Head of the Central Contact Committee of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Sudan