Thanks to generous support from KSrelief, families forced to flee Sudan conflict restart their lives

When conflict broke out in Sudan in April 2023, millions of people were forced on the move in search of safety. Many people fled with almost nothing having lost everything in the fighting, forced to rely on humanitarian assistance to survive.

With the generous support of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), UNHCR has delivered critical assistance to those that need it most. In 2024, KS Relief and UNHCR signed a US$ 4 million agreement to support displaced people in Sudan, Chad, and South Sudan. Thanks to this funding, emergency family shelters and communal shelters have been constructed, and core relief items have been distributed to nearly ten thousand individuals in transit centers and settlements in Upper Nile and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states, South Sudan.

Here are some of the stories of the people whose lives have been changed, thanks to KSrelief support.

“I want it to feel like a home for me and my children. Now the kids have their own room and some private space, and we have a place to sit, cook and eat together,” said Marka, a refugee mother of seven who fled the conflict in her hometown in El Geneina, Sudan and has now found safety in Farchana, eastern Chad. For Marka, shelters are more than protection, they offer a semblance of normalcy and control. It is the first step towards a new live that is filled with hope again. Transforming the shelters also brought back a sense of community, “my neighbors and friends are all working on their shelters, and we help each other out.”

"I feel safer unlike in the past years."

Al-Daw Daud Dafallah, who also escaped from Sudan, is grateful for his new home that has given his family a fresh start.

“We have added a personal and permanent touch to our shelter using a combination of the plastic sheeting we received and local resources like poles and mud. This has given my family safety, dignity, and is a signal of the beginning of a new life here in South Sudan. With the rainy season coming, I feel safer unlike in the past years,” he said.

Inside Sudan, displaced Sudanese families like Malaz’s are grateful for donors such as KSrelief as their timely support ha helped them find home away from home.

“The mosquito net protects us from insects, and the other items have also been very helpful,” adding that the water provided by other humanitarian partners has been a vital lifeline for her family and others in the site,” said 23-year-old Malaz Nasr Aldeen Alzain, whose life has been upended by the conflict, two times now.

More than two years since the start of the conflict, the Sudan emergency remains the largest and most devasting displacement and humanitarian situations in the world.

Since the start of the conflict in April 2023 to date, nearly 13 million people have been displaced both within Sudan and across borders. Today one in every three Sudanese is displaced. One in every 13 refugees globally originates from Sudan, accounting for the largest number of people displaced outside their country in Africa.

UNHCR is grateful to KSrelief for the strong support in response to the Sudan situation. We continue to urge more international solidarity so that people’s lives can be saved.