The ongoing civil war in Sudan entered its fourth year this month. It is broadly seen as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced. And yet, the conflict gets much less media attention than the wars in Gaza or Ukraine.

What role is gold playing in Sudan’s conflict? With U.S. humanitarian aid diminished around the world, have other countries stepped in with help? And how has the war affected the Sudanese economy?

The ongoing civil war in Sudan entered its fourth year this month. It is broadly seen as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced. And yet, the conflict gets much less media attention than the wars in Gaza or Ukraine.

What role is gold playing in Sudan’s conflict? With U.S. humanitarian aid diminished around the world, have other countries stepped in with help? And how has the war affected the Sudanese economy?

Those are just a few of the questions that came up in my recent conversation with FP economics columnist Adam Tooze on the podcast we co-host, Ones and Tooze. What follows is an excerpt, edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, look for Ones and Tooze wherever you get your podcasts. And check out Adam’s Substack newsletter.

Cameron Abadi: Can you give us some sense of the dimensions of the Sudanese war?

Adam Tooze: Sudan is gigantic. It is a nation of 53 million people, and this is after the separation of South Sudan. So that compares to about 40 million people in Ukraine. Sudan’s population is similar to the population you’d get if you added up Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine all together. And the consequences of this war have been absolutely devastating. The military casualties are not where the drama is to be found here. The official numbers are hugely under-reported. The immediate conflict casualties, we think, are in the order of 100,000 to 150,000.

But the real question is excess death as a result of the chaos and the destruction that has been brought on Sudan by the war. So we’re talking about maybe 12 million people displaced at various points, 4.5 million people crossing into Egypt, South Sudan, and Chad, none of which are rich places that can accommodate migrants, in the same way refugees from Ukraine are going to rich Western European countries. Refugees from Syria go to Turkey, which is also a high middle-income country. Not Egypt, South Sudan, or Chad. So this is a huge disaster happening in a poor part of the world and affecting millions of people. The most devastating number is that 34 million people in Sudan have been reduced to the state........

© Foreign Policy