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1,000 days

As the war approaches the 3-year mark, Sudan's people can't wait to rebuild their lives

February 12^th, 2026

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Even with no end to the fighting, work is under way to keep health care, food production and basic services running for tens of millions across the vast country.

More than 1,000 days have passed since war erupted in Sudan. Lives have been lost, communities shattered and decades of development progress eroded, turning Sudan into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Thirty million people need humanitarian assistance, and 14 million have been displaced since April 2023. Schools and hospitals are in ruins. Wells are contaminated, markets are shut, and electricity and water supplies are failing. Every day, women face an unending threat of sexual violence. Beyond the battlefields, cholera, malaria and other diseases are killing thousands.

Burnt-out car frame sits in front of the Tropical Diseases Teaching Hospital on a sunny day. A white UN-marked SUV is parked nearby.

Street scene shows a silver car, heavily damaged, with missing tires, in front of a building with broken windows. Debris litters the ground. Another burnt-out car is visible in the background.

Dilapidated four-story brick building with boarded windows under a clear blue sky. The facade shows signs of decay, with peeling coverings and closed storefronts. A sandy street stretches in front.

Man shovels debris in a vacant lot where a fire burns, sending black smoke into the sky. A tan wall and building stand in the background.

The scale of devastation means that humanitarian aid alone will never support the needs of everyone who is suffering. But even in the shadow of conflict, people across Sudan are struggling to build their lives and their country so they can support themselves.

They’re planting crops and trying to reopen businesses. They’re treating patients in damaged hospital rooms and delivering life-saving drugs across conflict lines. They’re keeping power and water systems running wherever possible. But they need more support to help expand these efforts and allow early recovery to begin for all.

“When the war forced us to flee, I lost everything: my home, my work, my sense of stability. Now I can sell tea again as people are returning to the streets, and food is back on my children’s table.”

Sameera supports her family selling tea in Khartoum. She was forced to flee when war broke out, but has now returned, hoping to start again, along with millions of Sudanese who are leaving displacement areas to go back to major cities.

Sameera and small businesses like hers—along with the customers who use them—are a sign of recovery and of the potential for small businesses to spur economic growth. In other cities, UNDP has helped thousands of women like Sameera with micro-grants to begin similar enterprises and with training on financial literacy and business skills so they can expand. This includes women across three states in eastern Sudan who have been supported with funding from Germany to set up food processing, tailoring and trading businesses.

Woman in colorful headscarf sits near tea-making equipment under a tree. Metal pots and teapots are nearby, with a brick building and greenery in the background. — Despite the ongoing conflict, many previously displaced persons are returning to their homes.

The outbreak of war was devastating for people living with HIV. Medical supply chains were cut off, 75 percent of hospitals in conflict areas closed down and thousands of displaced people had their treatment disrupted.

Over the last 1,000 days, UNDP, the Global Fund and the National Medical Supply Fund have worked together to maintain treatment for patients in the hardest-to-reach places, like Darfur and Kordofan, and for vulnerable people who cannot reach clinics. But the obstacles are severe. Antiretroviral medicines require consistent, supervised treatment. Medicines must be transported over dangerous routes to secure points. Clinicians must support patients to follow through with treatment plans to prevent drug resistance.

“We can’t wait for the hospital to be fully rebuilt before supporting patients. Despite the destruction, we continue our work.”

With the Global Fund, UNDP has brought in HIV medicines and test kits, equipped clinics, trained health workers and improved warehousing and distribution. Through a network of volunteers, NGOs and the National Medical Supply Fund, we have managed to track around 12,000 adults and children to maintain their HIV treatment. At the same time, this work has strengthened national systems that are key for the treatment of diseases like tuberculosis and for delivery of humanitarian aid.

Man stands in damaged building, holding cane. Walls have bullet holes and crumbling plaster. Door frame leans against wall, debris on floor.

Three women stand in a brightly lit office. One woman in a white hijab and black dress reviews papers on a desk, another in a lab coat listens, and the third in a colorful headscarf holds a tablet.

Man in glasses stands in a hallway with bullet holes and peeling paint. He wears a striped shirt. The hallway recedes into the distance.

Five men stand at the back of a truck, looking at boxes inside. The boxes are stacked high and some are wrapped in brown paper. Some boxes have the word

Three men load boxes into a truck. One man leans over a box, while another stands beside the truck wall. A third man stands in the background. They wear traditional clothing, long white robes and vests.

In states like Kassala and Gedaref, waves of displaced families have sought refuge from the fighting and must now share already limited resources with host communities in areas that are free from conflict but still mired in poverty. Land, water and jobs are all in short supply, and increased competition can fuel local tensions.

“Water is our biggest challenge, when the system breaks, everyone suffers—residents and displaced people alike.”

With King Salman Relief, UNDP is building and repairing more than 50 water yards and pumps that will serve 3 million people. We’re also training local water users associations, like Bader Elden’s in Kassala, to manage these facilities so they stay working for years to come.

Together with Switzerland, we are helping 160,000 displaced and host families in Kassala and neighbouring states to restore farms and rebuild livelihoods. This includes providing machinery, training farmers and installing solar energy systems, helping to lower food prices and boost supply.

In Darfur, horrifying human rights violations have seen hospitals invaded, women attacked and raped, and displaced people shot by the side of the road as they flee to safety. Now tens of thousands are in temporary shelters struggling to feed their families and access basic healthcare.

In one displacement site, UNDP and our Partners at Core have set up solar wells that provide a sustainable source of clean drinking water. For those displaced further away, we’ve worked with the Global Fund and other UN agencies to set up a mobile primary health facility that supports about 800 households with maternal services and laboratory testing, including HIV diagnosis and treatment. We’ve also delivered HIV medicines directly to Darfur through joint convoys with UN partners and are establishing cross-border access routes to enable more regular deliveries.

Three workers construct a large, circular, concrete structure on a sunny day. One stands on scaffolding inside the structure, while others stand near a wheelbarrow in the background, with thatched-roof buildings visible in the distance.

Three men repair a large, cracked concrete water tank outdoors. One man stands on scaffolding, using a trowel to apply mortar. Two other men stand in the muddy tank, one with a hammer. A palm tree is visible in the background.

Workers repair a cracked, circular concrete well in a rural area. Two men inside the well work on the walls, while another man in a blue shirt stands nearby. The well contains muddy water.

People gather at a blue UNDP water distribution point, filling containers. A child reaches for the spigot, and women in colorful patterned garments wait their turn under a partly cloudy sky.

Despite the misery of a war that is approaching the three-year mark, there is no peace agreement in sight, and people still have to live together and rebuild relationships in the absence of a broader political settlement. This creates an urgent need to support local peace initiatives, including mediation to address the kind of conflicts exacerbated by massive displacement.

UNDP’s new Peace on Wheels project in Khartoum and Gedaref is working with rickshaw drivers, women who run tea stalls and community leaders—individuals who meet huge numbers of people every day—to spread messages of peace, counter hate speech and promote dialogue.

This work is increasingly critical as millions of people like Sameera return to cities they fled earlier in the conflict, often to communities marked by deep polarization and mistrust. By focusing on local processes, Peace on Wheels aims to restore a sense of agency and help rebuild peace from the ground up, supporting the foundations for longer-term stability.

Man in a vest and cap sits in a black auto rickshaw, arm resting on the door. The rickshaw has white Arabic script on the front. Other rickshaws are lined up behind. — UNDP’s Peace on Wheels project partners with rickshaw drivers and other community members to spread messages of peace and counter hate speech.

After 1,000 days of war, Sudan’s people are showing extraordinary determination to survive, recover and hold their communities together, even as the conflict drags on. From keeping clinics open and water flowing to restoring livelihoods and strengthening local peace, these efforts show what is possible when people and communities are empowered through development support to help themselves.