In Sudan, a long-building crisis has turned a political dispute between two military generals into a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. More than 9 million people have had to flee their homes in what the International Rescue Committee called “the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.” Up to 150,000 are dead, radically more than earlier estimates.

Other wars and crises, particularly in Gaza and Ukraine, have made it more difficult for the urgent calls for international aid in Sudan to break through. With Sudan’s agriculture in ruins, and nearly all of the country’s banks robbed and emptied, famine is a real threat, as the New York Times has reported in disturbing detail. Many have already been dying from starvation, including babies. In many cases, relief efforts have been blocked by fighting, too.

In this chaos, Sudanese locals have taken up initiatives that offer a glimmer of hope. Privately funded community kitchens have sprung up across Sudan since the start of the war to help provide emergency relief to starving people. Many of these kitchens are supported by Sudanese people in the global diaspora, but they could be running out of money soon. Mohanad Elbalal, who is British Sudanese and is based in the U.K., helped to create Khartoum Aid Kitchen in coordination with his extended family members who have been displaced in the Sudanese capital. It now supports many kitchens across Khartoum in serving meals to about 1,300 people a day; out of desperation for funding, Elbalal is reliant on a crowdsourcing campaign to save lives. I called Elbalal to discuss the challenges faced by aid efforts, and how media coverage of other global crises has complicated efforts to publicly fund relief efforts in Sudan. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Aymann Ismail: Can you tell me how this effort has unfolded so far?

Mohanad Elbalal: Every Sudanese person in the global diaspora has a relative displaced or put out of work. So while their primary concern might be to support their relatives within Sudan, or to help them leave Sudan, they’re also seeing that people are beginning to starve. Maybe not immediate relatives, but let’s say the shopkeeper you’ve known all your life, or your neighbor. So what they’re doing is........

© Slate