From Ukraine to Gaza to the Strait of Hormuz. In recent years, these conflicts have been high on the agenda for many of us here in Britain, as we feel their economic impact, see the images of destruction and death, and engage in widespread public debate about what should happen next.

Yet today marks the third anniversary of another war, in Sudan, which has displaced more people than all those other conflicts put together, but had nowhere near the same impact on media coverage, parliamentary debates and public consciousness.

In Berlin this morning, on this grim milestone, the UK will co-chair an international conference on ending this terrible war. We send a simple message to the people of Sudan: you are not forgotten.

What has unfolded in that country over the past three years is hard to comprehend. Fourteen million people have been forced to flee their homes, as rival armies fight brutal campaigns for control of territory.

In one such campaign, last year’s capture of El Fasher by the so-called Rapid Support Forces, thousands of trapped civilians were massacred in what the UN’s independent Fact-Finding Mission said bore “the hallmarks of genocide”.

Cities once filled with life are now deserted, for fear of suffering the same fate. Millions have escaped across Sudan’s borders, bringing only what they could carry with them. Famine is spreading through those communities that remain.

And, despicably, wherever the armies take control, systematic sexual violence follows against the female population, a deliberate use of rape as a weapon of war, and an instrument of terror, against women and girls of all ages.

On a visit to the Sudanese border in February, I heard searing testimony from women who survived these atrocities. I listened to girls speak of rape, abduction, and loved ones who did not escape in time. I met families forced to flee the towns where they’d lived for generations, now facing disease and hunger in makeshift refugee camps.

We cannot forget that this is entirely a man-made crisis, a conflict fuelled by endless flows of weapons, money and mercenaries, and a disastrous calculation by the warring parties that – even if they have no path to military victory – they must keep fighting to avoid conceding defeat.

That is why the UK and our international partners are pushing hard for a ceasefire agreement and a diplomatic solution – to stop the suffering, and allow the people of Sudan to determine their own peaceful future.

In the meantime, amid all this horror, another Sudan endures, defined not by violence, but by courage. Across the country, civilians continue to step forward where the state has collapsed, working to keep their communities alive.

Local emergency responders travel neighbourhood by neighbourhood, providing food, water and medicine in conditions of danger and deprivation that few could imagine. They are unpaid, unaligned, and often targeted by the warring parties precisely because of the alternative model of life they represent.

They are not simply delivering aid. They are preserving the social fabric of their country and showing that Sudan’s future does not belong to armed men battling for power, but to citizens committed to dignity and coexistence. They must be recognised as the rightful architects of Sudan’s future.

That is why we are protecting the UK’s humanitarian support to Sudan and doubling our funding to these local responders, helping them to reach nearly two million people. Our aid will support that local leadership, not overshadow it. That is not only more effective; it is how a peaceful Sudan will be rebuilt.

So, today, in Berlin, I will call for the international community to join in a shared resolve: to secure a ceasefire, protect civilians, get aid to those in need, support a credible path to transition led by the people of Sudan, and an effective path to justice for all those who have suffered atrocities.

Three years on, the world can no longer claim it does not know what is happening in Sudan. Collectively, the world cannot wait.

Sudan’s civilians are already doing their part. Their courage is inspiring. The world must now stand with them, and renew our determination to bring this war to an end.

Yvette Cooper is the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs

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