Inside Sudan’s Conflict And Humanitarian Crisis
Sudan’s war has become one of the world’s most devastating crises, with new evidence of mass killings and ethnic cleansing in Darfur reviving the horrors of the genocide two decades ago.
Sudan’s Place on the Map
Sudan lies in north-east Africa, bordered by Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya. The River Nile runs through it, and the Red Sea forms its eastern frontier, giving the country immense strategic importance. With a population of about 46 million, Sudan is a land rich in gold and farmland, yet one of the poorest nations on Earth. Even before the current conflict, the average annual income was barely $750, and years of corruption, drought and sanctions had hollowed out its economy.
For more than thirty years, Sudan was ruled by Omar al-Bashir, a strongman whose Islamist regime was accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. His fall in 2019, brought about by mass protests demanding democracy, briefly raised hopes for a new political dawn. The army, pressured by the streets, removed Bashir and promised a transition to civilian rule.
A fragile power-sharing deal was struck between generals and civilian leaders, but the alliance was fraught with mistrust. Two men came to dominate the transitional period: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the regular army, and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF, officially formed in 2013, was built from the remnants of the Janjaweed militias accused of massacring non-Arab communities during the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s.
In October 2021, the uneasy partnership collapsed. The two generals staged a coup, ousting the civilian cabinet and promising “stability”. Instead, the coup destroyed Sudan’s democratic transition and set the stage for the current civil war. Both Burhan and Hemedti sought to consolidate power and control the country’s vast wealth, particularly its gold resources. Tensions deepened over the plan to integrate the RSF into the regular army, a move that neither man trusted to leave his position secure.
The Outbreak of War
The civil war erupted on 15 April 2023 when fighting broke out between the army and RSF units in the capital, Khartoum. Both sides blamed each other for firing the first shots. Within hours, battles were raging across the country, as RSF fighters took control of key military sites and parts of Khartoum while the army retaliated with air strikes.
What began as a power struggle between two generals has become a nationwide catastrophe. More than 150,000 people have been killed, 12 million forced from their homes and famine now threatens millions more. The United Nations describes the conflict as the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, dwarfing even Gaza and Ukraine in the scale of displacement.
Nowhere has suffered more than Darfur. The region, already scarred by the 2003 genocide, has seen history repeat itself. In el-Geneina, West Darfur, up to 15,000 members of the Massalit ethnic group were killed in 2023 in what UN investigators called a campaign of ethnic cleansing. But the latest atrocities have unfolded in the city of el-Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, after an 18-month siege by the RSF.
El-Fasher was the last major city in Darfur still held by the army and its allied local militias. In late October 2025, it fell to the RSF after months of bombardment and starvation. According to the Sudan Doctors Network, at least 1,500 people were killed within three days as civilians tried to flee. The group described it as “a true genocide”.
Witnesses told of RSF fighters separating men from women at checkpoints and executing them on the spot. Survivors said soldiers stormed homes, looted property and shot those who resisted. Videos shared by RSF members themselves appear to show summary executions and celebrations over dead bodies.
Satellite imagery collected by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab revealed clusters of objects consistent with human bodies and areas of red-stained ground – evidence analysts said indicated massacre sites. “El-Fasher appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and execution,” the Yale report concluded.
Doctors Without Borders said the RSF had earlier attacked the nearby Zamzam displacement camp, killing hundreds and blocking aid routes. “They cut off food, medicine, electricity and the internet,” said Kate Ferguson, co-founder of the NGO Protection Approaches. “Then they overwhelmed the population with arson, sexual violence and massacre. This is a deliberate strategy to destroy and displace – this is genocide”.
The violence extended to hospitals. The World Health Organization reported that more than 460 people were killed at the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher, including patients, staff and volunteers. Aid workers said the RSF went “ward to ward” shooting anyone they found. “They killed everyone they found inside,” said a statement from the Sudan Doctors Network.
The RSF’s leader, Hemedti, later released a video expressing “regret” for what he called “violations” and announced an internal investigation. But human rights groups note that similar promises were made after earlier massacres in el-Geneina and Gezira, none of which led to accountability.
The army, too, faces accusations of war crimes. Its air strikes on urban areas have killed civilians, and it has been accused of targeting ethnic groups thought to support the RSF. “Whether you’re a civilian, wherever you are, it is not safe,” said Emi Mahmoud of the IDP Humanitarian Network. “At the flip of a hat, those with guns can kill, imprison or torture anyone”.
International Actors and the Future of Sudan’s Conflict
Sudan’s war is fuelled by a complex web of regional rivalries and foreign interests. The army’s main backer is Egypt, which shares the Nile and sees Sudan’s stability as vital to its own security. Cairo has provided diplomatic and logistical support to General Burhan’s government in Port Sudan, where he relocated after losing Khartoum.
The RSF, meanwhile, is accused of receiving weapons, funding and intelligence from the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf state denies the allegations, but UN investigators and media reports have linked the RSF to gold smuggling operations that funnel wealth through Dubai. The Sudanese government has even accused the UAE of complicity in genocide by supplying arms to the RSF – a case that the International Court of Justice declined to hear for lack of jurisdiction.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkiye and Jordan have all condemned the atrocities in el-Fasher and urged an immediate ceasefire. Egypt has called for a humanitarian truce, while Saudi Arabia expressed “deep concern” over grave human rights abuses. Yet despite multiple rounds of peace talks hosted by Riyadh and Manama, neither side has agreed to stop fighting. Both generals still believe they can win militarily.
The United States determined earlier this year that the RSF and its allied militias had committed genocide against non-Arab groups in Darfur. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys, even infants, and targeted women and girls for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” said then–Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Washington imposed sanctions on both Hemedti and Burhan, but the bloodshed continues.
Analysts warn that with el-Fasher now fallen and most of Darfur under RSF control, Sudan risks splitting apart for a second time. The army still controls parts of the north and east, but its hold is fragile. Famine is spreading, aid routes are blocked, and millions remain trapped in areas cut off from relief.
Nathaniel Raymond of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab said the el-Fasher massacre was entirely predictable. “We laid out these warnings for the UN, the US and the UK months ago,” he said. “This cannot be solved by statements. It needs action”.
Sudan is now a nation consumed by war, its people caught between two generals and an indifferent world. For many survivors in Darfur, the nightmare feels all too familiar. “This is the Srebrenica moment,” said aid worker Emi Mahmoud. “The question is whether the world will act before it’s too late”.
Photo by Carmen Soler.