The war in Sudan is not coming to an end and is spreading to new cities.

Translated by Silvia Toro

Since April 2023, Sudan has been facing a gruesome civil war. The conflict has resulted in mass killings and has caused half of the Sudanese people to live in conditions of critical malnutrition and poverty (which is around 25 million people): it is described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, or also the "forgotten" conflict (or rather, for others, the "ignored" one). In August 2024, in the Zamzam refugee camp, famine was officially declared. The criteria for doing so are rigid: a three-year-old child must be malnourished, and two adults or four children must die of starvation every 24 hours.

Knowing the precise figure of victims of this war is hard, because according to the General Director of the International Organization of Migration , Amy Pope, "nobody is counting them". Nonetheless, the United Nations counted around 150,000 deaths by the end of last year, but this figure does not include the most recent combat waves. The displaced population is approaching twelve million.

Today, in fact, we have returned to talk about Sudan (although – as always – in a very small measure compared to the seriousness of the situation) because Sunday, May 4 the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces attacked Port Sudan, a port city in the northeast of the country and the de facto capital, as the current seat of government is located there. The drone strike hit a power plant, leaving the city without electricity and also causing a water supply interruption. The port and the fuel depot are among the areas affected.

This conflict originated at the end of Omar al-Bashir's thirty-year rule, which began in 1989 and ended in 2019, when he was forcibly dismissed. That year, the citizens protested, demanding free elections, but the reason the government was brought down was the army, who betrayed the president by rebelling in anticipation of protests and organizing a coup d'état. The protests continued because the head of the military junta was still considered too close to al-Bashir. For this reason, the army ended up shooting at civilians. Since then, the military has held power and continues to perpetrate violence against the population.

After the ouster of al-Bashir, the military promised to establish a democratic government: the command was replaced by the former chief of staff, Adbel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, who formed the Sovereign Council comprised of both military and civilians leaders. His deputy chief was General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was in charge of the paramilitary armed forces named Rapid Support Forces.

These are the special forces heirs of the Janjaweed , a pro-government militia that committed serious genocidal massacres in Darfur in the 2000s on behalf of President al-Bashir. Depending on the interpretation, the name Janjaweed would mean "the demons on horseback" or "the delinquents." Dagalo himself had been accused of massacres and crimes against humanity.

Unlike the rest of Sudan, which is mostly Arab, Darfur is mainly African. Despite both regions being Muslim, the central government has long ignored this region and disregarded its needs, from infrastructure to services, due to ethnic differences. This caused a rebellion that was put down violently.

Neither of these two military groups represented the population, and the council was not carrying out the demands of the 2019 demonstrations. Both sides had promised to restore power to the civilian population. In December 2022, under international pressure, the government entered into an agreement with democratic groups to transition power to a civil, democratic administration.

However, Dagalo resisted because the pact provided for the disbanding of the RSFs and their integration into the regular army; political clashes then began between Dagalo and Burhan, the democratization process took a back seat, and from political the clash became armed: civil war erupted on April 15, 2023.

The conflict that began in 2023 is worse than those of the past: the RSF are even more violent, raking houses, looking for weapons among civilians, using rape as a weapon of war; but even the army is not exempt from charges of war crimes. A few hours of ceasefire were guaranteed on 16 April 2023 to allow the population to obtain medicine and use the humanitarian corridors. However, communication did not reach all the troops at the same time, resulting in many people being killed on their way to the grocery store.

A month ago, the conflict turned two years old. After a long stalemate lasting until September 2024, the regular army began to make a series of conquests. In fact, by the end of March this year, they had regained control of Khartoum, the former capital of Sudan, which had been besieged and divided between the two factions since the beginning of the conflict.

However, on the second anniversary, Dagalo announced the creation of a parallel government to the real one, led by Buhran. "On the occasion of this important anniversary, we proudly proclaim the establishment of a government of peace and unity [...]. This government represents the true face of Sudan," he said.

The paramilitary forces then moved west, heading back towards Darfur, which is almost totally under their control: their aim is to advance in the north of the region, and move from there the conflict to areas that have not yet been affected by it with the same intensity as the southern areas.

The first concrete step towards this goal happened on April 13th, 2025, when they announced that they had taken control of the refugee camp named Zamzam near the capital of North Darfur. According to the United Nations, the assault caused at least four hundred victims and the escape of around 400,000 people from the camp (data taken from the IOM).

The attacks on Port Sudan in the past days, as well as those in Kassala and the conquest of En Nahud, are the latest evidence of how this conflict is not close to an end and how the two military groups are evenly matched in terms of armed forces.

On May 8th 2025, Amnesty International published a report stating that the United Arab Emirates are co-responsible for the crimes committed by the RSF, accusing them of providing weapons, which is "almost certain". These sophisticated Chinese-made arms were identified through the analysis of videos and photos of clashes in Khartoum and northern Darfur. If true, then the Emirates would have violated the arms embargo on Darfur and international law. Arms are not coming only from there, however. A similar report from last year also documented the presence of Russian and Turkish weapons.

Amnesty International has launched a global petition calling for the UN Security Council to extend the embargo on Sudan. The appeal is now even more urgent given the latest developments in other Sudanese cities.

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