Sudan

Having experienced only 11 years of peace since achieving independence in 1956, Sudan faces enormous challenges. More than 40 years of intermittent fighting led to the longest-running war in Africa, displaced several million people, and largely devastated the infrastructure across southern and central Sudan. Oil revenues are now supporting a booming economy in Khartoum, but other areas of the country continue to lack even basic social services, roads, hospitals and schools. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict in Darfur threatens the current, fragile peace maintained between the north and south.

Catholic Relief Services has supported relief and development programs in Sudan with our local partners since the end of the first major civil war in 1972 when the agency helped resettle internally displaced Sudanese. Almost 300 staff members now serve more than 420,000 people across the country. A variety of programs are helping southerners to rebuild, assisting displaced people in Khartoum, and enabling people affected by the ongoing conflict in Darfur to survive.