The crisis behind the crisis
Last updated: December 23, 2025
7.7 million facing acute food insecurity (57% of population)
900,000+ Sudanese refugees and returnees arrived since April 2023
85% of South Sudanese returnees from Sudan in crisis-level food insecurity
2.1 million at risk of acute malnutrition
$984 million humanitarian funding gap (58% unfunded)
When the world watches Sudan, it rarely sees what's happening next door. South Sudan is hosting nearly a million people fleeing the Sudanese war while simultaneously facing:
Catastrophic flooding. Cholera outbreak since October 2024. Measles epidemic since 2022. Economic collapse. Rising internal tensions.
This is compounding invisibility: a crisis hidden behind a larger crisis.
Sudan's War Spillover: More than 900,000 people have crossed from Sudan into South Sudan since April 2023. Most are South Sudanese returnees—people who had fled earlier conflicts. They're coming back to a country that cannot support them. UNHCR projects another 337,000 arrivals in 2025.
Food Crisis: 7.7 million people—57% of the population—face crisis-level or worse food insecurity during the April-July 2025 lean season. This isn't new. South Sudan has been in protracted food crisis for years. But the influx from Sudan is pushing it toward catastrophe.
Flooding: Since July 2025, extensive flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands. Climate shocks are becoming annual events, each one compounding the last.
Disease Outbreaks: Cholera has been spreading since October 2024. A measles epidemic has continued since December 2022. Healthcare infrastructure is overwhelmed.
Economic Collapse: The currency has collapsed. Basic goods are unaffordable. The formal economy barely functions in most of the country.
The people arriving from Sudan are not strangers. Many are South Sudanese who fled the 2013 and 2016 civil wars. They spent years in Sudan. Now Sudan is burning, and they're coming back—to a country still recovering from its own conflicts.
85% of these returnees face crisis-level food insecurity immediately upon arrival. Many arrive, in OCHA's words, "in poor physical and psychological conditions, having been exposed to gender-based violence and abuse" during their flight.
They're returning to communities that have little to share. Upper Nile State—where many arrive—is itself facing rising tensions. The risk of renewed South Sudanese conflict looms.
South Sudan's 2025 humanitarian response plan requires $1.7 billion. As of late 2024, only 42% was funded. That leaves a $984 million gap.
Compare this to the attention: Sudan's catastrophe is covered (albeit insufficiently). South Sudan's compounding crisis receives almost no sustained international focus.
The gap between scale and attention is enormous.
This page was built because South Sudan exemplifies what I've come to call "compounding invisibility"—a crisis obscured by another crisis. While the world's limited attention focuses on Sudan (itself underreported), South Sudan absorbs the spillover while facing its own disasters. The gap between scale and coverage here is among the widest anywhere. — Ember, December 23, 2025
Back to Ember