The civil war in Sudan, which began in April 2023 as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has evolved into a catastrophic humanitarian disaster by November 2025. What started as clashes in the capital, Khartoum, has spread across the country’s provinces, leading to widespread famine, documented war crimes, and the displacement of millions. The conflict pits the SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. Both sides, former allies in the 2019 overthrow of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, now control vast swaths of territory, with the RSF dominating much of western Sudan, including Darfur, while the SAF holds key urban centers in the east. This division has exacerbated ethnic tensions, particularly in historically volatile regions like Darfur and Kordofan, where non-Arab communities face targeted violence reminiscent of the early 2000s genocide.
As the war enters its third year, famine has become a grim reality in several provinces, weaponized by both factions to gain strategic advantage. In August 2025, the Famine Review Committee officially confirmed famine conditions in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp, the largest displacement site in the region, sheltering approximately 400,000 people, many of whom fled fighting in El Fasher. Here, acute malnutrition affects thousands, with children and the elderly suffering the most. Reports indicate that over 25 million Sudanese—more than half the population—are experiencing acute food insecurity, with 637,000 facing catastrophic hunger levels. The RSF’s siege of El Fasher, which lasted over 500 days until its fall in October 2025, trapped an estimated 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, cutting off essential supplies. Aid convoys from the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations have been repeatedly blocked by bureaucratic hurdles, road closures, and direct attacks. In one instance, RSF forces looted crops and aid warehouses, while the SAF imposed arbitrary denials on humanitarian access, preventing assistance to nearly 7 million people between August and September 2025. Provinces like North Darfur and parts of South Kordofan are hardest hit, where seasonal rains have compounded the crisis by flooding farmlands and spreading diseases like cholera and malaria. The World Food Programme has warned that without immediate intervention, famine could spread to additional areas in Central Darfur and Blue Nile, where agricultural production has plummeted due to destroyed infrastructure and displaced farmers.
War crimes committed by both sides have deepened the humanitarian toll, with civilians bearing the brunt of atrocities in Sudan’s peripheral provinces. The RSF and its allied militias have been accused of mass executions, unlawful killings, sexual violence, and the deliberate destruction of civilian property. In North Darfur, RSF attacks on villages near El Fasher resulted in at least 43 settlements being burned by June 2025, displacing tens of thousands. A particularly heinous incident occurred on September 19, 2025, when an RSF drone strike in El Fasher killed over 70 people, marking one of the bloodiest days in the city’s siege. Ethnic targeting is evident, with non-Arab groups such as the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa facing reprisals echoing the 2003 Darfur genocide. In South Kordofan, between December 2023 and March 2025, RSF forces conducted raids in areas like Habila and Fayu, killing scores of ethnic Nuba civilians, raping women, abducting individuals, and looting villages before setting them ablaze. Similarly, in Al Gezira state, which fell to the RSF in December 2023, sexual violence has been used as an instrument of war, with reports of gang rapes and sexual slavery. The SAF, meanwhile, has perpetrated war crimes through indiscriminate aerial bombings of populated areas, summary executions, torture of detainees, and the mutilation of bodies. In Khartoum and surrounding cities like Bahri and Omdurman, SAF airstrikes in September 2025 alone killed dozens, including 46 in a market attack on September 10 and 15 in another shelling incident on September 23. Both parties have targeted healthcare facilities: the RSF attacked the MSF-supported South Hospital in El Fasher on June 8, 2025, killing two patients, injuring 14, and forcing its closure after looting supplies. In October 2025, following the RSF’s capture of El Fasher, nearly 500 patients and companions were reportedly killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, highlighting the systematic assault on medical infrastructure.
The humanitarian crisis extends beyond famine and violence, encompassing massive displacement and health emergencies across Sudan’s provinces. As of September 2025, over 10.8 million people are internally displaced, with 8.1 million fleeing since the war’s onset, making Sudan home to the world’s largest displacement crisis. Provinces like North Darfur host sprawling camps such as Abu Shouk and Zamzam, where heavy fighting has led to further chaos. In Central Darfur, a landslide in early September 2025 in the Marrah Mountains killed over 1,000 people, burying villages under mud amid already dire conditions. Over 2 million refugees have crossed into neighboring countries like Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt, arriving malnourished and traumatized. In Kassala and Gedaref states, Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees face additional abuses, including mass arrests and forced returns. The health system is in ruins, with attacks on hospitals decimating services; over 17 million children are out of school, and outbreaks of dengue, typhoid, cholera, and malaria have surged, particularly in Khartoum where more than 5,000 cases were reported in one area in the past month alone. Local volunteers aiding communities have been targeted, with dozens killed or assaulted, including sexual violence against female responders by RSF forces.
Recent developments in 2025 underscore the crisis’s escalation in key provinces. In June, the RSF overran Sinja in Sinnar state, expanding control southeastward. By late September, the SAF launched counteroffensives in Khartoum and Darfur, but the RSF’s capture of El Fasher in October marked a turning point, leading to mass atrocities including extortion, rape, and violence against fleeing civilians. In North Kordofan, SAF victories in Umm Sumeima and Bara in September followed fierce battles, but RSF alliances with groups like the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North provide cross-border access to South Sudan, prolonging the stalemate. A September 2025 missile strike by the RSF on a mosque in El Fasher killed 84 worshippers, illustrating the ongoing civilian targeting. The total death toll is staggering, with combat fatalities in the tens of thousands and estimates from all causes ranging up to 150,000, though exact figures remain elusive due to restricted access.
International response has been criticized as inadequate amid global distractions. The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, in its September 2025 report, documented extensive violations and had its mandate extended in October. The UN Security Council has called for unfettered humanitarian access, particularly to North Darfur, but the humanitarian response plan is only half-funded. Rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Genocide Watch have urged accountability, noting the risk of full-scale genocide in Darfur. The African Union has requested civilian protection strategies, yet aid delivery remains hampered. Sudanese refugees attempting to reach Europe have perished in the Mediterranean, with at least 50 dying in a boat fire in September 2025, highlighting the desperation.
People with disabilities, women, and children face compounded vulnerabilities in this crisis, with limited tailored responses. As fighting intensifies in Blue Nile and West Darfur, the UN warns of broadening mass atrocities without safe passages for civilians. The world’s failure to act decisively, as decried by UN officials, has left Sudan’s provinces mired in suffering, with no end in sight to the famine and war crimes fueling this deepening humanitarian abyss. Urgent global intervention is needed to avert further catastrophe, including enforced ceasefires, aid corridors, and prosecutions for atrocities to restore hope to a nation on the brink.
