Red Cross ‘engaging with Sudan’s warring parties’ as roll of missing tops 8,000

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it remains in dialogue with all parties to Sudan’s armed conflicts in an effort to secure safe and unhindered humanitarian access, as the number of people reported missing in the country rises sharply.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, ICRC spokesperson for Sudan, Adnan Hazam, responds to measures introduced by the Sudan Founding Alliance ‘Tasees’ government linked to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), requiring international organisations to register or notify the authorities before operating. He says the Red Cross continues to engage with all sides in the conflict in order to deliver aid to affected communities. Under international humanitarian law, he argues, humanitarian access is essential for the protection of civilians and neutral aid organisations must be allowed to operate swiftly and without obstruction.

Thousands missing

The organisation says that since the outbreak of war on April 15, 2023, it has recorded 8,000 missing persons linked specifically to the current conflict. Across Sudan’s wider conflicts, the total number of missing people documented by the Red Cross reaches roughly 11,000.

Families uprooted from El Fasher

More than six months after fleeing El Fasher, thousands of displaced families remain stranded in Tawila under harsh living conditions, still searching for relatives lost during the fighting. Similar patterns of violence, displacement and family separation continue across other parts of Sudan, notably in Blue Nile, Kordofan and Darfur, where repeated clashes and attacks on civilian areas force communities to flee again and again.

Teams from the Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society are working in the field to provide assistance and restore contact between family members separated by a conflict now stretching into its fourth year.

Najwa’s search for her son

The report recounts the case of Najwa Mohamed, who walks for four days with her children to reach Tawila after fleeing El Fasher. Arriving destitute, she then learns that her husband has reportedly been struck by a vehicle in the city. Her 17-year-old son leaves to search for him and never returns. “Since then, we have received no information about him,” she says. “We searched everywhere, but every attempt to find him failed.”

Conflicting accounts and uncertainty

Another displaced resident, Zahra Hamed, says she and her family are wounded during the fighting in El Fasher before eventually reaching Tawila. Contact with her brother is then lost. Conflicting reports emerge about his fate: some claim a drone strikes his vehicle; others say he escapes; another account suggests he is taken prisoner. None can be verified.

More than three years into the conflict, over 11m people have been displaced, including 4m who flee abroad. The number of missing-person cases registered by the Red Cross in Sudan surpasses 11,000, representing an increase of more than 40% in the past year alone.

Women and children bear the burden

Families are frequently separated during flight, communication networks collapse and access to healthcare, food, clean water, and protection services remains severely constrained. Women and children are especially vulnerable, many arriving at displacement sites after long and traumatic journeys marked by sexual violence, bereavement, and uncertainty over the fate of loved ones.

Phones stolen, networks collapsed

Shireen Hanafiya, head of the Red Cross’s family-links programme in Sudan, says many people fleeing the war are simply unable to contact one another. Phones, she says, are often stolen, looted, or sold for money, while the collapse of telecommunications networks renders communication impossible.

Reunited after 18 months

Some families are eventually reunited after lengthy efforts. The report highlights the case of Halima Abdel Karim, who travels to El Fasher to visit her sister and becomes trapped there for 18 months. Her daughter, Souad Adam, waiting in her hometown, has no idea whether her mother is still alive. The Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent eventually help reconnect them. During a video call arranged by the organisation, Souad hears her mother’s voice for the first time in a year and a half: “Do not cry. I am fine. I simply miss you.” The two are later reunited in Tawila.

A growing humanitarian emergency

Telephone and internet services provided by the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement now play a central role in reconnecting separated families both inside and outside Sudan. In the first three months of 2026 alone, the movement facilitates more than 80,000 phone calls within Sudan and with people in South Sudan and Chad.

The Red Cross warns that every effort must be made to prevent other communities from suffering the devastation experienced by El Fasher and now endured by displaced families in Tawila. Respect for international humanitarian law, it says, is essential. Aid deliveries must be facilitated, and all parties should take concrete steps to spare civilians further suffering.