The conflict in Sudan continues unabated, with over 100,000 killed. Millions more are displaced and suffer from food insecurity and the collapse of basic services. The humanitarian situation has become catastrophic, especially after the October conquest of el-Fashir, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have only now allowed minimal relief to enter. The geographic expansion of the conflict and the use of sophisticated drones in areas far from traditional frontlines demonstrate the war’s expansion that threatens to dismantle the Sudanese state. Instead of moving toward a humanitarian ceasefire declared by the Quad in September—the grouping of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the United States that is supposed to help resolve the conflict—the civil war has only intensified. For his part, Chairman of the Transitional Military Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who heads the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), seems to have absorbed the October defeat in el-Fashir at the hands of the RSF and officially returned to the capital of Khartoum for the first time since the war began in 2023. Since then, al-Burhan has visited Ankara, Cairo, Moscow, and Riyadh to shore up international political and military support after the RSF secured most of Kordofan and Darfur. All the parties claim to support humanitarian relief, but the UN’s appeal is severely underfunded. The longer the military conflict continues, existing aid organisations will be able to reach fewer of the population in need.
Sudan Stands Between War and an Imposed Peace | The Washington Institute
