The world can no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening in Sudan. Since the outbreak of war in April 2023, the Sudanese army has transformed from an institution supposed to protect citizens into a war machine systematically targeting them. Indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods, starving the population, and the forced displacement of millions of civilians are all documented facts. Together, they constitute a heavy dossier being opened before international courts and bodies, placing the leadership of the Sudanese army in direct confrontation with international humanitarian law.
Bullets That Do Not Distinguish Between Combatant and Civilian
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented dozens of incidents in which the Sudanese army targeted densely populated civilian areas. In Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri, shells fell on popular markets, hospitals, and schools without any discernible distinction between military and civilian sites.
These patterns do not describe accidental errors; rather, they reveal a systematic policy. When a residential neighborhood is repeatedly shelled at the same time of day, when people are in markets and homes, it is difficult to classify this as a targeting error.
Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and Additional Protocol I, explicitly prohibit indiscriminate attacks that fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants. What is being documented on Sudanese soil constitutes a blatant violation of these provisions.
Starvation as a Weapon of War
The crime of starvation is no less serious than the shelling. The Sudanese army has resorted to tightening the noose on specific areas, either by besieging them or cutting off their supply routes, thereby depriving the population of food, medicine, and fuel.
The World Food Programme and a number of humanitarian organizations have detected acute famine conditions in areas of North Darfur and parts of Gezira and Khartoum states.
The forced starvation of civilians is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. When food supplies are used as a leverage point or an instrument of collective punishment, legal responsibility reaches directly to the commanders who issued those orders or turned a blind eye to them.
Mass Displacement: Screaming Numbers
The numbers alone are sufficient to depict the scale of the disaster. United Nations estimates indicate that Sudan is experiencing one of the largest displacement crises in modern history, with the number of internally displaced persons exceeding ten million, in addition to millions of others who have fled to neighboring countries.
On the ground, tragic figures emerge from Blue Nile State alone, where nearly sixty thousand people displaced within a few months of 2026, with children making up almost half of this number.
These figures are not cold statistics; they represent entire families uprooted from their lands and homes, and children cut off from education, healthcare, and safety.
The testimonies of fleeing families add a soul to these numbers. A mother from Omdurman who lost her son under the rubble of a house shelled at night; a farmer from the Blue Nile who was forced to flee, leaving behind his land and harvest after military forces burned his village; and a ten-year-old boy carrying his infant sister, walking for hours searching for his family. These are not exceptions, but models of thousands of documented cases.
The Door to International Accountability
In light of these facts, solid legal foundations are forming for genuine international accountability. First, the United Nations General Assembly referred the Sudan file to the Security Council, and the International Criminal Court has previously issued arrest warrants for Sudanese officials on charges of war crimes and genocide. This precedent proves the viability of international judicial prosecution for Sudanese leaders.
Second, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights state that the state is obliged to protect its citizens from abuses, and when the state itself is the abuser, the international community must assume the responsibility to intervene through available mechanisms.
Third, the UN Human Rights Council can form independent fact-finding committees, a path taken by many countries that witnessed similar crimes.
International Sanctions
Rhetorical condemnations are not enough. The experience of the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda proves that international justice is possible when political will is available. Targeted sanctions against specific leaders of the Sudanese army—freezing their assets, travel bans, and halting arms deals—have become a requirement, not a luxury.
Furthermore, international companies partnering with the Sudanese military establishment in the gold and oil sectors bear a legal and moral responsibility under the UN Guiding Principles, opening the door to legal prosecution in the countries where these companies are headquartered.
What is happening in Sudan is not an internal affair. It is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and an ongoing crime for which millions of civilians pay the price daily.
60,000 displaced persons in a single state within a few months, half of them children because of the Sudanese army, is a message that needs no interpretation. The international community faces a true moment of testing to hold the Sudanese army accountable for what it is doing within the areas under its control, including displacement, indiscriminate shelling, and the targeting of civilians.