The war in Sudan marked its third anniversary this week, with observers warning that the conflict between the military and paramilitary forces shows no sign of ending.


At the same time, sweeping cuts to global humanitarian aid risk plunging the country deeper into crisis, with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) warning this week that more than four million people worldwide could be newly displaced by the end of next year as funding declines.


The organisation said the global displacement crisis is already at historic levels, with around 117 million people forced from their homes, as reported by Reuters.


DRC Secretary General Charlotte Slente said conditions for those fleeing violence are deteriorating rapidly as international support wanes. Many are forced to escape “with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” she said, warning that weakening global protection systems are compounding the crisis.


Sudan is expected to remain at the centre of the surge in displacement. The country’s protracted conflict has already driven 13.5 million people from their homes, and hundreds of thousands more could be forced to flee in the coming years. The United Nations has cautioned that funding shortfalls risk disrupting essential aid, including water and food supplies, in refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.


UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the third anniversary of Sudan's war, which came on April 15, marked a "tragic milestone" and called for an end to the "nightmare".


The North African country is 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 group Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, which witnesses and aid groups say has laid waste to parts of the vast Darfur region.


The war has pushed parts of Sudan into famine. The number of people with severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous and deadly kind, is 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 out of 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 Organisation.


By Nazrin Sadigova