What's happening in Sudan? All about the war and humanitarian crisis going mostly unnoticed

Tens of thousands of civilians dead. Warring factions driving millions from their homes. The threat of famine. Fears of genocide. Any one of these would be a crisis warranting a major international response.

But in Sudan, they're all taking place at once, more than 500 days into a brutal civil war. Little global attention is being paid to what's happening in the northeast African nation, with few signs the situation there will get any better. 

The war began on April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in the capital of Khartoum, then spread throughout the country.

The two groups had been in a fragile partnership after an October 2021 coup that derailed a transition to civilian-led governance from the 20-year rule of Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019.

The UN says nearly 20,000 people have died as a direct result of the violence, but other estimates suggest as many as 150,000 people may have been killed. Humanitarian agencies are demanding urgent action to prevent mass starvation, while the United Nations has warned violence targeting ethnic groups has the markers of genocide. 

Attempts at securing a peace deal have failed to make any progress. 

Here's what you need to know about conflict and the desperate situation people in the country are facing. 

The most pressing issue at the moment is that an estimated 25.6 million people — more than half of Sudan's pre-war population — are now at risk of acute hunger, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) estimates.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) says the entire country is in crisis with large swathes facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity and, in some places, famine. 

The heads of three humanitarian organizations said the international community's "silence is deafening" and warned Tuesday the people of Sudan were facing a "crisis unmatched in decades."

"Every opportunity to head-off the worst of this situation has been missed," read a joint statement from the leaders of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council and the U.S.-based Mercy Corps. 

A UN humanitarian response plan is only 41 per cent funded, and the statement noted that much of that money has come too late to prevent deaths.

Human rights groups have accused factions from both sides of the conflict of committing war crimes and carrying out atrocities.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it has analyzed videos and photos showing summary executions, mass killings, torture and the mutilation of dead bodies.