Who is fighting

Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023 — fighting erupted on April 15 — between two former allies:

  • The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the national military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
  • The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary, led by Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo.

The war began in Khartoum and spread across the country. The two generals had partnered in the October 2021 coup that derailed a planned transition to civilian rule; they split over the integration of the RSF into the regular army — and over who would ultimately lead it.

A war sustained from outside

Both sides draw support from foreign backers, which has kept the war going. According to reporting on the conflict's external dimension:

  • The United Arab Emirates has been accused of supplying the RSF, with payments linked to smuggled Sudanese gold.
  • Russia's Africa Corps reportedly supported the RSF in connection with gold, even as Moscow pursued talks with the SAF about a Red Sea naval base.
  • Egypt provided the SAF with equipment, intelligence, and training.
  • Saudi Arabia has remained publicly neutral while diplomatically backing the SAF.

Most named states deny involvement. The pattern, documented by the UN's Fact-Finding Mission, is of a proxy conflict sustained by outside self-interest.

The humanitarian catastrophe

The figures, as reported by UN agencies in the first half of 2026, describe the world's largest displacement crisis:

  • 8.9 million people internally displaced (UNHCR, May 2026), with millions more displaced to surrounding countries.
  • 150,000+ reportedly killed.
  • 33.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (OCHA).
  • Around 19.5 million facing acute food insecurity (World Food Programme, FAO, and UNICEF).
  • Famine conditions declared in the largest displaced-persons camp in Darfur and nine other areas (Council on Foreign Relations, mid-2026).
  • Roughly 7 million internally displaced persons in total per CFR's mid-2026 assessment, with some 8 million children out of school and education and health systems collapsed.
  • The war has set Sudan's economy back more than 30 years, and extreme poverty could reach 60% (UNDP via UNRIC).
  • 245 child casualties in the first 90 days of 2026 alone (UNICEF).

Both the RSF and the SAF have committed widespread atrocities, according to the monitoring cited above — the RSF through mass executions and infrastructure destruction, the SAF through bombing of populated areas — with sexual violence widespread, especially against women and girls.

Where things stand

The war entered its fourth year in April 2026 (UNESCO). The country is effectively split in two, with each side controlling separate territories, and no reconciliation in sight.

In June 2026, the UN relief chief raised the alarm over escalation in North Kordofan, and the Security Council was warned of a mass-atrocity risk in El Obeid, with drone attacks endangering civilians — the same dynamics documented in our recent analysis of the RSF's drone campaign. The capital, Khartoum, is relatively quiet after the SAF's recapture, with fighting concentrated in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile state.

Figures in this explainer are attributed to the UN agencies and organizations that reported them, as of the first half of 2026. Estimates vary by source and reporting date.