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April 15 marked two years since war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict began in 2023 after generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, derailed the country’s transition to civilian rule following the ousting of former dictator Omar al-Bashir.
The power struggle between these rival military factions has devastated Sudan, plunging the country into what human rights organizations are calling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
A catastrophe snapshot
According to the United Nations and the International Rescue Committee, nearly 13 million people have been displaced. Around 25 million are facing acute food insecurity, and at least 150,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in 2023.
Sudan’s hunger crisis is not the result of drought or natural scarcity. Instead, it is driven by the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid. Once considered the “breadbasket” of Africa and the Middle East, Sudan holds vast potential to combat global food shortages due to its strategic location and longstanding agricultural traditions.
“This is a man-made crisis, driven by conflict — not by drought or floods or earthquakes — and because of the obstruction of access to humanitarian assistance by parties to the conflict,” said Shaun Hughes of the UN World Food Programme. He warned that thousands more Sudanese will die as the war enters its third year.
Global complicity
Much of the blame for the war’s continuation has been pinned on the international community’s failure to act. Reactions have mostly consisted of statements of condemnation, with little meaningful intervention or effort to center Sudanese voices.
In a strikingly performative move, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy hosted a conference with 20 other nations yesterday— including France, Germany, the European Union, and the African Union — to discuss a “pathway to peace” in Sudan. Yet, no formal Sudanese representatives or Sudanese persons were invited to the talks.
Eva Khair, head of the Sudan Transnational Consortium, described the exclusion of Sudanese voices from the peace talks as “unforgivable,” especially given that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an alleged backer of the RSF, was invited.
“It’s deeply concerning to see more agency given to supporters of the conflict than to a single Sudanese voice,” said Khair, referencing the UAE’s role in backing the RSF militia.
The UAE is currently facing trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its alleged “support and complicity” in acts of genocide in Sudan, particularly in the RSF’s brutal campaign against the Masalit and other non-Arab groups in Darfur.
The Gulf country has denied the allegations, dismissing Sudan’s ICJ case as “nothing more than a cynical publicity stunt aimed at diverting attention from the established complicity of the Sudanese Armed Forces in the widespread atrocities that continue to devastate Sudan and its people.”
However, a leaked expert report revealed that several UAE aircraft made suspicious, undetected flights into military bases in Chad, heightening suspicions that the UAE is secretly supplying weapons to the RSF via the neighboring country.
In early 2024, The Guardian reported a 41-page document sent to the UN claiming that UAE passports were recovered from the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in Omdurman, in east-central Sudan. The report included photographs of four passports belonging to UAE nationals aged 29 to 49, suggesting covert involvement of UAE personnel on the ground in Sudan.
One year into the war, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights released what it called the first independent investigation into violations of the Genocide Convention in Darfur. The report concluded, based on “clear and convincing evidence,” that the RSF and allied militias are committing ongoing acts of genocide against the Masalit and other non-Arab groups.
Rape as a weapon of war
Both the SAF and RSF have been accused of war crimes. While the SAF has been blamed for indiscriminate aerial bombings due to its limited targeting technology, the accusations against the RSF are more severe, including widespread sexual violence, torture, and mass killings.
A recent report by Amnesty International revealed that the RSF has used rape as a systematic weapon of war, targeting women and girls across Sudan. The report describes the assaults as deliberate efforts “to humiliate, assert control, and displace communities across the country.”
The report includes harrowing accounts of rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery – such as a mother being raped while breastfeeding, a woman held in sexual captivity for 30 days in Khartoum, and victims being tortured with boiling liquids or sharp blades.
“The RSF’s assaults on Sudanese women and girls are sickening, depraved and aimed at inflicting maximum humiliation,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact.
“The world must act to stop the RSF’s atrocities by stemming the flow of weapons into Sudan, pressuring the leadership to end sexual violence, and holding perpetrators, including top commanders, to account,” added Muchena.
More than a ‘civil war’
Labeling the conflict as a mere “civil war” oversimplifies the dynamics at play. Sudan, like much of Africa, is rich in natural resources — and that richness has historically made it a target. Foreign and domestic actors stand to benefit enormously from Sudan’s instability, particularly through access to gold and oil.
Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers. Control of gold mines, especially in Darfur, translates directly to wealth and power for those involved in the conflict.
In March, Reuters reported that gum Arabic — a resin from acacia trees used as a stabilizer in soft drinks and candy — is increasingly being smuggled out of RSF-controlled regions. The RSF receives a fee from Sudanese traders marketing the product, which is then smuggled into neighboring countries without proper certification.
Sudan supplies around 80 percent of the world’s gum Arabic, making it one of its most important exports after gold and oil. Yet in recent months, traders in nearby countries with little to no previous gum Arabic production have suddenly begun offering it in large quantities and at low prices.
This has put into question international companies’ efforts to insulate their supply chain from the war. Meanwhile, as the war rages on and the cradle of the Nile civilization lies in ruins, the region’s legacy of natural riches and ancient wisdom has been depressingly overshadowed by images of displacement and famine. As always, ordinary Sudanese people are abandoned while politicians and geopolitical interests take center stage.
