For the past three years, Sudan’s war has killed more than 150,000 people. It’s pushed 33 million into need of humanitarian assistance and plunged parts of the country into famine. But even as the human toll of Sudan's humanitarian crisis has mounted, the conflict has created a web of winners: foreign and domestic players profiting from violence.

That dynamic sits at the center of the International Rescue Committee’s annual emergency watchlist, which identifies the 20 countries at greatest risk of worsening humanitarian crises in the year ahead. For the third year in a row, Sudan topped the list — a reflection of not just the scale of suffering, but the complications of a profit-powered war.

“Profit from conflict is being legitimized and normalized. Sudan is a case study, as gold and natural resources fuel the conflict,” said David Miliband, IRC’s president and CEO, at the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. “The new economics of war are a feature of the watchlist this year — probably for the first time.”

The Root Causes of Sudan's Humanitarian Crisis

In Sudan, that’s materialized through the trade of gold and guns. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, that’s taken the form of rebel groups taxing the mineral trade — and earning $800,000 every month from doing so. And in the Sahel, that’s played out through armed groups trafficking goods across borders, creating an economy “built on violence.”

Those are just three of 61 conflicts recorded in 2024, the report states — more than at any point since World War II.

“Conflict has become a sophisticated, multibillion dollar global industry,” reads IRC’s watchlist, which was published on Tuesday. “In many cases, external powers seeking to amass influence and money supercharge these networks by intervening in other countries’ civil wars, selling weapons to and buying resources from parties to the conflicts, which has increased the number of countries involved in wars beyond their borders to record levels.”

It’s why IRC’s first recommendation of the watchlist is to dismantle “conflict economies” through targeted sanctions, anti-money laundering tools, and other international financial pressures. The report calls out the United Arab Emirates’ alleged role in backing the Rapid Support Forces, one of the two militias involved in Sudan’s conflict — something that the UAE has repeatedly denied.

Read the full article about Sudan's humanitarian crisis by Elissa Miolene at Devex.