Sudanese Civil War (2023-present)
The Sudanese Civil War that began in 2023 is the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), after the collapse of Sudan's post-2019 transition. Fighting erupted on 15 April 2023 in Khartoum following a power struggle between the two military factions that had jointly overthrown the civilian government in 2021, and it quickly became a national conflict of urban battles, territorial contest, regional humanitarian spillover, and atrocity risk, with Darfur reactivated as one of its most dangerous theaters and ethnic cleansing reported in West Darfur.
The conflict links military-state fragmentation, militia power, Khartoum urban warfare, Darfur violence, regional diplomacy, and one of the world's most severe displacement crises: over 12,000 killed by counts that are likely far too low, 8 million displaced internally, and 1.5 million refugees in neighboring countries. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, sexual violence, and the targeting of humanitarian aid, and international mediation efforts, including talks in Jeddah, have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo
Abdel Fattah al-BurhanThe war emerged from the collapse of Sudan's fragile political transition and the unresolved balance between army and paramilitary power.
The 2023 war began when the partnership between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF collapsed into open fighting. The deeper cause was not simply personal rivalry, but a state structure in which military and paramilitary power had not been subordinated to a stable political order.
Sudan's war is a conflict of state fragmentation as much as one of battlefield maneuver.
The conflict spread from Khartoum into multiple regions, making urban warfare and territorial fragmentation central features of the war.
The war quickly moved beyond a capital-centered power struggle. Khartoum's urban combat, breakdown of administration, and spreading regional fronts turned Sudan into a fragmented conflict space in which civilian life and state capacity were attacked at the same time.
Front lines alone do not describe this war; control also depends on roads, neighborhoods, aid access, and the ability to govern through force.
Darfur became one of the war's most alarming theaters because older patterns of militia violence and ethnic targeting resurfaced inside the new war.
Darfur is not a side theater. It is one of the main reasons the conflict carries such high atrocity risk. Earlier militia structures, unresolved grievances, and the RSF's roots in western Sudan all contributed to a pattern in which the national war reopened older violence systems.
Sudan 2023 is a conflict that must be understood across multiple linked theaters rather than as a single-front civil war.
The war has generated mass civilian displacement, severe rights abuses, and cross-border humanitarian consequences.
Sudan's war is one of the world's largest displacement and humanitarian emergencies. Civilians face shelling, looting, sexual violence, siege conditions, and repeated flight, while neighboring countries absorb parts of the crisis.
The scale of human harm constitutes a key strategic dimension of the conflict.
The war is a contemporary state-fragmentation conflict with multiple active theaters and high evidentiary difficulty.
Communications disruption, insecurity, and propaganda complicate verification in Sudan, requiring a cautious approach that avoids false precision while still conveying the clear pattern of national breakdown and severe civilian harm.
Darfur and Khartoum together define the war's character; an accurate account explains what is known and where uncertainty remains.
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