Nisrin Elamin is a professor in the department of Anthropology and the African Studies Program at the University of Toronto. Her work investigates the connections between land, race, belonging and empire-making in Sudan and the broader Sahel region and is currently working on a book project based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in central Sudan.

Sudan is the site of one of the world’s great humanitarian disasters. Since war broke out in April 2023 between The Sudanese Armed Forces and The Rapid Support Forces or RSF, catastrophe has overwhelmed it. Tens of thousands of people have died. Out of Sudan’s population of 48 million, over 13 million have been displaced, making Sudan the largest internal displacement crisis on Earth. Some 30 million Sudanese are in dire need of food aid in a country that could easily feed itself and the entire region.