Timeline: Three years of war in Sudan

On April 15, fighting begins between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), wreaking devastation across Sudan, forcing millions of people from their homes, and driving the country’s health care system to collapse. In the first year of conflict, more than 15,000 people are killed.

The compounding effects of war trigger an increasingly severe humanitarian crisis over the course of 2024. A cholera epidemic is declared in August, and famine is declared in Zamzam camp, the most populous displacement camp in Sudan. 

By June, more than 680,000 people fled the war in Sudan to South Sudan, with limited access to food, water, shelter, sanitation facilities, and medical care.

Measles outbreaks spread widely across Sudan’s Darfur region in late 2024 and early 2025, affecting people in communities where MSF teams are treating patients. Mass vaccination campaigns finally begin in several locations across the region, supported by MSF. 

To help newly arriving refugees in Chad, MSF boosts activities in Tine and Oure Cassoni camps.

In October, the RSF seizes the city of El Fasher, following a prolonged siege and atrocities committed against civilians. MSF patients who managed to flee to the nearby town of Tawila share stories of mass killings, torture, kidnappings, and other violence occurring in the city and along escape routes.

The crisis in Sudan has become not only a humanitarian catastrophe, but a collective political failure. The response from governments and international organizations has failed to meet even the most basic expectations.