Sudan enters fourth year of war: The numbers reveal a nation in pain

Sudan on Wednesday entered a fourth year of war that's being called an "abandoned crisis," as a new conflict in the Middle East throws into shadow the fighting that has forced 13 million people to flee their homes.

The country has been described as the world's largest humanitarian challenge, notably in terms of displacement and hunger.

There is no end in sight to the fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that witnesses and aid groups say has laid waste to parts of the vast Darfur region.

"This grim and chastening anniversary marks another year when the world has failed to meet the test of Sudan," United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.

Numbers tell a tale of pain

At least 59,000 people have been killed, with at least 6,000 of those dying over three days as the RSF rampaged through the Darfur outpost of el-Fasher in October, according to the UN, with UN-backed experts concluding the offensive bore "the defining characteristics of genocide."

More than 11,000 people were missing over the course of the war, the Red Cross says.

The war has pushed parts of Sudan into famine.

More than 19 million people face acute hunger, according to the World Food Program, with the number of people with severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous and deadly kind, expected to increase to 800,000, the world's foremost experts on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said in February.

About 34 million people, or almost two of every three Sudanese, need assistance, the UN says.

Only 63% of health facilities remain fully or partially functional amid disease outbreaks including cholera, according to the World Health Organization.

More than 13 million people have been forced to abandon their homes, with 4.5 million fleeing the country to places like Egypt, South Sudan, Libya and Chad, and 9 million remaining displaced in Sudan.

And now fuel prices in Sudan have increased by over 24% because of the Iran war and its effects on shipping, driving up food prices.

Experts look at possible war crimes

Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities like ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence against civilians.

The International Criminal Court has said it was investigating potential war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in Darfur, a region that two decades ago became synonymous with genocide and war crimes.

Most of the latest atrocities have been blamed on the RSF and their Janjaweed allies, Arab militias that were notorious for atrocities in the early 2000s against people identifying as East or Central African in Darfur.

"We have… no reason at all to believe it will stop the mass atrocities that we saw in el-Fasher," Denise Brown, the top UN official in Sudan, said.

No end in sight for a country divided in half

Sudan is now essentially divided between a military-backed, internationally recognized government in the capital, Khartoum, and a rival RSF-controlled administration in Darfur.

The military has established control over the north, east and central regions, including Sudan's Red Sea ports and its oil refineries and pipelines.

The RSF and allies control Darfur and areas in the Kordofan region along the border with South Sudan.

Both regions include many of Sudan's oil fields and gold mines.

While Egypt supports Sudan's military, the UAE is accused by UN experts and rights groups of providing arms to the RSF.

The UAE has rejected the accusation.

The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab, which tracks the war through satellite imagery, said this month that the RSF had received military support from a base in Ethiopia.

The RSF didn't comment on the allegation.

With the international community now focused on the conflict in the Middle East, many fear that Sudan might be left to fend for itself.

"Please don't call this the forgotten crisis,'' Brown, the U.N. official, said.

"I'm referring to this as an abandoned crisis."