Three years into its civil war, Sudan has become unrecognisable with more than 40,000 people killed, about 14 million of its people – a quarter of the population – forced to flee their homes and civilian infrastructure across the country extensively damaged. A report by the UNDP and the Institute for Security Studies lays out the scale of Sudan’s economic collapse since the war began in 2023 due to a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Even under the most optimistic scenario of peace being achieved in 2026, Sudan would still lose an estimated $18.8bn in its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2043, the report said, illustrating just how deeply the war has already reshaped the country’s economic trajectory.
The report warned that the damage goes beyond lost economic activity and is affecting the very foundations of the economy, including agriculture, industry, services and state institutions. Here’s a look at how the war has impacted Sudan, one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The destruction of Sudan’s infrastructure and the collapse of the systems that support daily life and economic activity have imposed a massive economic cost on the country.
According to UNDP estimates, Sudan lost $6.4bn in its GDP in 2023 alone, a loss that Renda said reflected “a simultaneous collapse across all major parts of Sudan’s economy”, driven in large part by the destruction of infrastructure. Sudan’s GDP was $26bn in 2023, the year fighting erupted as army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo jostled for power. Fighting has damaged farmland, irrigation systems and transport networks, contributing to a 15 percent drop in cultivated land.
In urban centres, the destruction of factories and the power supply has caused industrial activity to collapse by about 90 percent, shutting down businesses and resulting in the loss of jobs. Up to 40 percent of power generation capacity has been lost, and key water infrastructure has been destroyed or seized, cutting communities off from clean water and sanitation. Outbreaks of disease, including cholera, have spread as water systems broke down, placing further strain on an already weakened health sector and increasing the long-term costs of recovery.
The World Health Organization has verified more than 200 attacks on healthcare facilities with fewer than 14 percent fully operational in conflict areas. Thousands of schools have closed or have been damaged, disrupting the educations of millions of children. Agriculture, which had employed about 65 percent of the workforce, was once the backbone of Sudan’s economy, but it has been severely hit by the war.
Cultivated land has shrunk, adversely impacting rural livelihoods. Many rural communities that depended on farming for income and food have lost their economic base, weakening a sector that previously sustained millions of families. According to the UNDP, average incomes have fallen back to levels last seen in 1992, underscoring the depth of the economic shock and its impact on households across the country.
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