Sudan — one of Africa's largest countries by area and home to approximately 46 million people — faces compounding humanitarian crises that have severe consequences for animals. The conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has created one of the world's worst current humanitarian disasters, with animal welfare impacts that are underreported but profound. Understanding Sudan's animal welfare situation requires confronting how conflict, climate stress, and poverty interact to create animal suffering at vast scale.
The civil war that began in April 2023 has displaced over 10 million people — making Sudan home to the world's largest internal displacement crisis as of 2024. This conflict has catastrophic consequences for animals: livestock are killed, stolen by armed groups, or die from neglect when owners flee; veterinary infrastructure in conflict zones collapses; agricultural systems that sustained both humans and animals disintegrate.
Sudan's vast semi-arid zones support some of the world's largest pastoralist populations — communities that have maintained sophisticated livestock management practices for millennia. These systems, in non-conflict conditions, provide reasonable welfare for animals: natural grazing, seasonal migration following rainfall, traditional health knowledge. The Darfur conflict of the 2000s and the current war have repeatedly disrupted these systems with devastating effects on both animal and human welfare.
Sudan experiences some of the most severe climate change impacts in Africa: increasing drought frequency, desertification expanding southward, and erratic rainfall disrupting the pastoral calendar. These climate stresses interact with conflict to compound animal welfare problems — animals already nutritionally stressed from drought face additional pressures when conflict disrupts their movement and care.
Sudan's vast territories include significant wildlife: elephants in the south (much reduced from historical populations), hippopotamuses along the Nile, diverse savanna species in Dinder National Park, and desert-adapted species in northern regions. Sudan was historically part of the range of the northern white rhinoceros (now functionally extinct) and numerous large mammal species that have been dramatically reduced by poaching during decades of conflict and weak governance.
Conservation enforcement is essentially impossible in active conflict zones. Poaching has increased as armed groups exploit wildlife for income. International conservation organizations including AWF and WCS have maintained some programs in accessible areas but face severe operational constraints.
FAO's emergency livestock programs — providing feed, veterinary supplies, and restocking support — have operated in Sudan during crisis periods. These programs recognize that livestock are not merely food production assets but the primary wealth and food security basis for millions of Sudanese, making livestock support a critical humanitarian intervention. The welfare dimensions of these programs receive less attention than the food security framing, but emergency livestock health support also reduces significant animal suffering.
Animal welfare in Sudan is inseparable from peace and humanitarian response. Near-term priorities for the international community: support FAO emergency livestock programs that include veterinary care, advocate for humanitarian corridors that include livestock support, document conflict-related animal welfare impacts for accountability purposes, and maintain wildlife monitoring in accessible protected areas. Long-term improvement requires political resolution, institutional rebuilding, and integration of animal welfare into development frameworks — aspirations that depend on peace as a prerequisite.