Sudan's economy has regressed decades... Poverty rates have doubled and the future holds shocking prospects.

Sudan faces a “systematic erosion” of its future as it enters War In its fourth year, United Nations reports revealed a huge jump in poverty rates, warning of a decline in economic and living standards to levels not seen in the country since the 1960s.

humanitarian catastrophe

Luca Renda, the UNDP Resident Representative, confirmed that poverty rates in Sudan have effectively doubled since the outbreak of armed conflict in April 2023. After the rate had stabilized at 381 TP3T before the war, current estimates indicate that 701 TP3T of the population are now living below the poverty line, in one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.

The picture is even bleaker in conflict zones such as Darfur and Kordofan, where the figure reaches 75%, while one in four Sudanese lives in abject poverty, with an income of less than two dollars a day, reflecting the scale of the collapse in purchasing power and livelihoods.

Reconstruction in Khartoum 

Despite the ongoing fierce fighting in the states of Kordofan and Blue Nile, the capital, Khartoum, has experienced relative calm since the army took control last year. Signs of a return to normalcy are emerging in middle-class neighborhoods and markets, with some 1.2 million displaced people returning to their homes.

However, this relative stability in the center is clashing with the escalation of drone attacks in the provinces, which have killed nearly 700 civilians in the first three months of this year alone, increasing the risks of regional instability and the continuation of waves of displacement that have exceeded 11 million people.

 Billions of dollars in losses

According to a recent report by the United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with the Institute for Security Studies, Sudan lost an estimated $6.4 billion in GDP in 2023 alone. The report warned that if the conflict continues until 2030, an additional 34 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty.

The report noted that the country’s average income has fallen to levels not seen since 1992, while extreme poverty rates have surpassed those of the 1980s, which UN officials described as not just a passing crisis, but a loss of opportunities for an entire generation of Sudanese.

Millions of children are out of school

The war casts a heavy shadow over the future of childhood in Sudan. Since the start of the conflict, some 5.6 million children have been born in tragic circumstances in shelters lacking basic medical care and electricity. The education system has been almost completely paralyzed, with 17 million children deprived of schooling for two years, and only a small fraction of them having been able to return to their studies.

On the health and nutrition front, 40% of “tekayas” (community kitchens) were closed due to lack of funding, at a time when 21 million people are suffering from acute food insecurity, with famine officially declared in certain areas, amid a huge funding gap that covered only 16% of the budget required for relief.

Berlin Conference

All eyes are on Berlin, the German capital, which is hosting a donors' conference aimed at mobilizing humanitarian support and breaking the diplomatic deadlock. This move comes after successive failures of the Quartet's efforts and previous conferences in London and Paris, at a time when the number of missing persons is increasing and family ties are being torn apart due to the collapse of communication networks and ongoing displacement.