1,000 Days of Sudan’s War: A State Suspended Between Guns and Absence

Moatinoon
The calendar has crossed the threshold of 1,000 days since the outbreak of war in Sudan on April 15, 2023, with no real indications on the ground that gunfire will cease or that life will return to normal across the country. This number is more than a mere marker of time; it has become a stark testimony to a total political deadlock and an open-ended humanitarian collapse with no visible horizon.

As the war dragged on without prospects for resolution, it transformed from a struggle for power into a condition of state disintegration itself. The absence of any serious political process, coupled with the failure of all regional and international initiatives, has exposed the reality that the warring parties possess no genuine project for governance. Instead, they are managing a war economy based on weapons, looting, and control over resources.

The internationalization of the crisis—without a genuine will to end it—has further prolonged the war. The international community has dealt with Sudan as a crisis-management file rather than a war-ending priority. The result has been an absent authority, collapsed institutions, and a political vacuum filled by militias and temporary alliances.

The Humanitarian Dimension
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan stands as one of the largest in the world. It is not merely an armed conflict, but a humanitarian catastrophe—the worst in modern times in terms of needs, displacement, hunger, and the collapse of basic services.

More than half of the population now requires humanitarian assistance, while millions live as internally displaced persons or refugees, amid clear UN incapacity, deliberate restrictions on humanitarian operations, and the use of food and medicine as weapons of war.

According to UN statistics, more than 30.4 million people—nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s population—are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including food, healthcare, and shelter.

Under the 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan, over 23 million people in host communities and 8.1 million internally displaced persons require direct support. Among them are approximately 16 million children living in extremely vulnerable conditions. In addition, more than 3 million Sudanese refugees are hosted in neighboring countries, making Sudan the country with the largest number of internally displaced people due to conflict and the epicenter of displacement in Africa.

The tragedy continues to deepen as food availability declines. More than 24.6 million people are facing acute food insecurity, including confirmed famine conditions in several areas, with expectations of further expansion if the conflict continues. This means that nearly half the population—around 25 million people—are experiencing extreme levels of hunger.

This shift from food insecurity to recognized famine in multiple locations is not merely a statistic; it reflects the collapse of agricultural production, the destruction of supply chains, and the loss of the ability to secure basic food.

Ahmed Ibrahim, a resident of Dar Al-Salam in East Nile, describes the continuation of the war beyond 1,000 days as catastrophic, warning that unless the war stops, its effects will persist for decades, particularly in terms of development and progress, with ordinary citizens bearing the greatest burden. He noted a partial return of life in Al-Haj Yousif area in East Nile, saying, “We have regained some of the security that had been absent for nearly three years.” Yet he added that the war stripped people of inner peace after a bitter experience. “No one expected Sudan to reach this point, despite all political, economic, and humanitarian complexities. Quite frankly, the war was a catastrophe—placing the entire country on the edge of a volcano that burned everything: killing people, tearing apart society, destroying cities, and looting wealth and livelihoods.”

More than 80% of hospitals in conflict areas are no longer fully operational, leaving millions without access to healthcare, including treatment for acute malnutrition and life-threatening conditions. Statistics indicate that since the declaration of the cholera outbreak in August 2024 until the end of August 2025, Sudan recorded approximately 102,831 cholera cases, with around 2,561 associated deaths.

In education, more than 17 million children have been out of school since the war began, due to the closure of educational institutions or their conversion into shelters for displaced people. University student Omar Al-Sheikh says there is no clear future for education in Sudan, noting a sharp decline in educational quality and a lack of investment in its development, with the war having “made a bad situation worse.” He also pointed out that Sudanese universities dropped out of global ranking indicators after the war, while tuition fees increased dramatically, placing a heavy burden on citizens.

Fracturing the National Fabric
Politically and socially, the war has produced a deep rupture within Sudanese society. Forced displacement, regional and ethnic polarization, and hate speech threaten to reshape national identity on violent foundations—suggesting that the war’s effects will endure long after the fighting stops.

Yet university professor and literary critic Dr. Ahmed Al-Sadiq Barir, writing from exile, insists on holding onto hope. He opens his reflection with verses by Issam Issa Rajab:
“Read, so that war does not happen…
Al-Sadiq argues that while times of devastation often produce tendencies toward religious proselytization or ontological pessimism, the human creative achievement repeatedly disproves such fatalism. History, revolution, and even moments of intense violence have remained capable of generating consciousness and transformation. He stresses that creativity has continued across all forms, producing a rich aesthetic history even in exile, and that identity has not been lost despite the loss of place and language.

He calls for resilience against systematic violence and against those who have turned expertise in war and prisons into credentials for governing society after crushing the revolution and its ideals of freedom, peace, and justice. For him, creative expression must not cease; it remains essential to restoring the relationship between humans and the world and breaking what he calls the “vicious complexes” of apartheid, warped theology, and commodity logic. “We will not stop writing,” he concludes, “until we become essential to ourselves.”

Normalizing the Catastrophe
Perhaps the most dangerous outcome of the past 1,000 days is the normalization of tragedy. Daily death, mass displacement, and the collapse of basic services are no longer breaking news, but routine realities for millions of Sudanese.

Psychiatrist Dr. Nahid Mohamed Al-Hassan poses a pressing question: after 1,000 days of war, have Sudanese people “adapted” to trauma, or are they merely enduring different forms of forced coexistence with pain?

She explains that while some degree of adaptation has occurred, this does not equate to healing. What exists today is a wide spectrum of psychological responses shaped by age, gender, the nature of traumatic experiences, access to support, and time. Sudan’s war, she notes, is not a single traumatic event but a continuous chain of shocks—bombing, displacement, loss, educational disruption, and repeated exposure—leaving no opportunity for psychological closure.

Dr. Nahid distinguishes between functional coping, where individuals reorganize daily life to survive and care for others, and defensive coping, which is more dangerous and manifests as emotional numbness, chronic anxiety, sleep disorders, and detachment. Gender dynamics further complicate trauma, as women often shoulder daily survival burdens while facing higher risks of gender-based violence, whereas men may struggle with the loss of traditional provider roles.

She emphasizes that true recovery cannot be measured by silence or endurance, but by the return of safety, the cessation of daily harm, and the emergence of a political and social horizon that allows people to grieve—and eventually heal.

1,000 Days… What Comes Next?
Ending the war is no longer merely a moral imperative; it is an existential necessity for Sudan’s survival. Each additional day beyond the thousand is not measured in time, but in lives lost, memories erased, and futures destroyed.

Despite regional and international interventions, no effective peace agreement has been achieved, nor has a sustainable ceasefire taken hold. Continued arms flows to the warring parties—condemned by the UN Secretary-General—signal that the conflict has become more than an internal war, evolving into a battleground for external interests and alliances.

The longer the war continues, the deeper its impact on an entire generation: children without education, communities torn apart by displacement, and a shattered economy.

These figures are not merely statistics. They are urgent warning signs that the continuation of the war poses an existential threat to Sudan’s future—not only politically, but to its social and human fabric as a whole.