As war tears through Sudan, the environment has been buried beneath the smoke of battle, mass displacement and hunger. Yet it is one of the sectors suffering the broadest and deepest losses.
Experts say what is unfolding in Sudan’s forests is no longer routine environmental degradation. It is a silent disaster threatening the country’s natural resources and climate balance, as the state’s ability to monitor and protect them weakens and living pressures grow.
The collapse of basic services, fuel shortages and soaring living costs have forced thousands of Sudanese families back to firewood and charcoal as alternative energy sources.
The result has been a surge in tree felling and the depletion of forest belts. Internal displacement has added to the pressure, with large numbers of people moving to safer areas and setting up temporary shelters in wooded zones, amid an almost total absence of environmental oversight and law enforcement.
A bitter reality
On the outskirts of Khartoum state, among acacia trees near the confluence of the two Niles, Aisha Abdullah collected firewood and described the choices now facing families.
“We used to rely on cooking gas, but the price of a cylinder has risen to about 90,000 Sudanese pounds, around $22.50, and we can no longer afford it,” she said. “We have no option left but firewood to cook food. We know that cutting trees harms the environment, but how can a family live without food?”
In Gezira state, Salah al-Tayeb said economic hardship has pushed many people toward the forests.
“The price of a sack of charcoal has reached about 105,000 Sudanese pounds, around $26.25, which is beyond the means of most families,” he said. “That is why firewood has become the only available option for many people to meet their daily needs.”
Saadia Abdullah, a tea seller on Nile Street in Omdurman, said the war has upended her work as fuel prices climbed and incomes fell.
“I used to use gas and charcoal in my work normally, but prices have become beyond our capacity,” she said. “Today I rely on firewood so I can prepare tea and continue working under these difficult conditions.”
Accelerating environmental damage
Moussa Suleiman Moussa, director general of the National Forestry Corporation, said forests have become an emergency energy source during the war because of power cuts and shortages of cooking gas.
Official data show about 60% of acacia forests in Gezira state have deteriorated, along with 45% in Sennar state. Other states have been affected to varying degrees.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Moussa said Sudan’s forest area is estimated at about 30 million feddans after South Sudan’s secession in 2011, equal to around 12.5% of the country’s area. Plans had aimed to raise that figure to 25% , but the war halted that path and accelerated the depletion.
Bishra Hamed, former head of the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources in Khartoum state, said Sudan’s environmental resources are facing a “wide and multifaceted assault” as the effects of war intersect with economic, social and security crises.
He said the weakened role of the state and declining law enforcement have allowed the firewood, charcoal and timber trade to expand. Modern methods are being used to cut trees and move them quickly through networks operating inside and outside the country.
“Between 70% and 80% of the population depends directly on natural resources for their livelihoods, whether through farming, herding or firewood production. This makes environmental degradation a direct threat to economic and social stability in a country already suffering from structural fragility,” he said.
Hamed also warned that unregulated mining inside forests and natural reserves is deepening the crisis by stripping more vegetation and polluting soil and water, creating complex environmental challenges that will be hard to contain in the near term.
Environmental expert Awad Mohammed Siddig said the damage goes beyond temporary resource consumption. It amounts to the rapid dismantling of an entire ecosystem.
He said the loss of vegetation strips soil of its ability to retain moisture and allows desertification to spread in already fragile areas, while habitats disappear and biodiversity declines.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Siddig said rural communities are paying the price directly through falling agricultural production, weaker protection from advancing sand and disruption to the water cycle.
Climate and environmental expert Noureldin Ahmed said forests are among Sudan’s most important natural resources because they help moderate the climate, protect soil and provide food and shelter for millions of living organisms.
He said wide areas have become barren after once serving as a natural lung that supplied oxygen and reduced the effects of desertification and climate change. He warned that the continued deterioration of vegetation cover threatens to multiply Sudan’s climate and humanitarian crises.
Mounting economic losses
Forestry expert Talaat Dafallah said the loss of dense vegetation contributes to rising temperatures and weakens the local environment’s ability to absorb carbon emissions.
He said the damage is also draining vital resources such as timber and gum arabic, with annual losses in the forestry sector estimated at about $500 million because of illegal tree cutting.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Dafallah said the immediate priority is to reduce household dependence on firewood by providing cooking gas where possible, expanding the use of improved stoves and supporting solar energy in neighborhoods and displacement centers.
The damage has not stopped at the natural environment. It has reached key economic sectors. In Kordofan, one of the world’s most important gum arabic producing regions, production chains have been badly hit, affecting millions of people who depend on the sector as a main source of income.
With the war dragging on and state institutions retreating, Sudan’s environment is facing a real existential challenge. Depletion is accelerating without protection or recovery plans, while environmental, economic and humanitarian losses deepen day by day, raising the prospect of long-term consequences that could affect generations to come.
