The blood-soaked soil of Sudan is no longer just a battlefield. It has become the engine of a war economy that is propelling the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with British aid agencies warning they are struggling to keep pace with the rising tide of suffering.
Since the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023, more than 8.6 million people have been displaced, making Sudan home to the largest displacement crisis on the planet. Entire families are on the move, fleeing artillery shells and ethnic violence that has reawakened the ghosts of Darfur. But this is not simply a humanitarian disaster. It is a war economy in which both sides are fuelling the violence through looting, extortion and trade in resources. Gold, gum arabic and livestock are being siphoned off to buy weapons, while banks and factories have been stripped bare.
For ordinary Sudanese, the price of survival has become unbearable. A bag of sorghum, the staple grain, now costs 400% more than it did before the war. In the capital Khartoum, now a ghost city of shattered buildings and snipers, markets have been replaced by black markets. Those who can scrape together enough money to flee are met with closed borders or extortionate fees at checkpoints. Many have ended up in refugee camps in Chad and South Sudan, where the World Food Programme has been forced to halve rations due to funding shortfalls.
UK aid, already squeezed by inflation and the government’s decision to cut the overseas development budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income, is feeling the strain. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has pledged £87 million for Sudan this year, but humanitarian groups say that is a drop in the ocean. The UN’s $2.6 billion appeal for Sudan is only 27% funded. British charities like Save the Children and the British Red Cross are reporting that their own appeals are falling short as the cost of living crisis back home makes donors think twice.
“The situation in Sudan is catastrophic and it is getting worse by the day,” said a spokesman for the UK-based charity Islamic Relief. “Our teams on the ground are seeing children dying from malnutrition because their families cannot afford food. The international community is failing them, and that includes the UK.”
The war economy has also turned entire regions into commercial war zones. In Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias have been accused of looting livestock and grain stores, then selling them across the border to Libya and Chad. The gold mines in the northern state of River Nile are now controlled by armed groups who use the proceeds to buy more ammunition. This is not collateral damage. This is a deliberate strategy to starve out opposition and enrich commanders.
The impact on regional stability is profound. Neighbouring countries, themselves fragile, are absorbing millions of refugees. Chad, one of the poorest nations on Earth, has seen its refugee population triple since last year. The UK’s aid programme, already overstretched by commitments in Ukraine and Gaza, now faces a series of difficult choices. Every pound spent on Sudan is a pound not spent on other crises. But the cost of inaction is far higher. Without a ceasefire and a commitment to demilitarise the economy, the suffering will only deepen.
In the streets of Bradford and Birmingham, Sudanese diaspora communities are raising what they can, sending money home through informal networks. A single £50 transfer can feed a family for two weeks. But as the war drags on, the money runs out. And the war economy grinds on, making millionaires out of warlords and paupers of everyone else.
This is the real economy of war. And it is breaking the world.
