# Sudanese Civil War The **Sudanese Civil War** began on **April 15, 2023**, when the [[Rapid Support Forces]] of [[Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo]] ("Hemedti") and the Sudanese army of [[Abdel Fattah al-Burhan]] — partners in the 2019 and 2021 seizures of power — turned their guns on each other in Khartoum. It has produced the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis, a US genocide determination against the RSF, and a de facto partition: the army holds the north, center and east; the RSF holds most of Darfur and parts of Kordofan, with its own rival government. > [!note] Division of labor > This page owns the war. The country is at [[Sudan]]; the belligerents at [[Rapid Support Forces]], [[Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo]] and [[Abdel Fattah al-Burhan]]. ## Course of the war | Date | Event | |---|---| | Apr 15, 2023 | Fighting erupts in Khartoum | | May 2023 | Saudi–US talks in Jeddah produce a civilian-protection declaration and short-lived ceasefires | | 2023 | RSF and allied Arab militias massacre the Massalit in El Geneina, West Darfur — the UN Panel of Experts cites 10,000–15,000 killed; Human Rights Watch calls it ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity | | Dec 2023 | RSF takes Wad Madani | | Aug 2024 | Famine declared in Zamzam camp, Darfur; US-led Geneva talks open without the army | | Jan 7, 2025 | US determines that the RSF committed genocide | | Jan–May 2025 | Army retakes Wad Madani and then Khartoum | | Apr 11–13, 2025 | RSF storms Zamzam camp; the UN human rights office later counts over 1,000 civilians killed | | May 5, 2025 | International Court of Justice dismisses Sudan's genocide case against the UAE for lack of jurisdiction | | Aug 30, 2025 | Hemedti sworn in as head of a rival government at Nyala | | Oct 26, 2025 | El Fasher falls after an 18-month siege; the UN documents more than 6,000 killed in three days and a UN fact-finding mission later finds "indications of genocide" against the Fur and Zaghawa | | Nov 2025 | Famine confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli | | 2026 | Front shifts to Kordofan: the army breaks the siege of Dilling in January; El Obeid, a city of about 500,000, is threatened by RSF drones and massing forces | ## The toll - **Displaced:** about 14 million at the peak, counting refugees; 8.6 million internally displaced as of mid-2026 after returns to Khartoum and Gezira (UNHCR). - **Dead:** no reliable count. Documented figures run to tens of thousands; a London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine study estimated more than 61,000 deaths in Khartoum State alone by mid-2024, 26,000 of them violent; broader estimates reach 150,000 or more. - **Hunger:** about 21 million people acutely food insecure in late 2025. ## Outside hands - **[[United Arab Emirates]]** — a UN Panel of Experts tracked an air bridge of cargo flights from UAE bases to eastern Chad used to supply the RSF; the UAE denies arming it. - **Egypt and Saudi Arabia** — back the army; Iran has reportedly supplied it with drones. - **Russia** — Prigozhin's [[Meroe Gold]] mined with the RSF and Wagner reportedly armed it; after Prigozhin's death the Russian state tilted toward the army and its promised Red Sea naval base. ## Diplomacy, as of October 2026 Every truce has failed. The US-led "Quad" (US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE) proposed a three-month humanitarian truce in September 2025; envoy [[Massad Boulos]] later pressed a 90-day version, which the RSF says it accepts and the army rejects because it would leave the RSF holding seized cities. In September 2026 the US withheld Burhan's UN General Assembly visa over the truce, and the State Department said neither side represents legitimate constitutional government. On October 7, 2026 Burhan rejected negotiations and vowed to retake "every inch" of RSF-held territory. ## See Also - [[Sudan]] · [[Rapid Support Forces]] · [[Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo]] · [[Abdel Fattah al-Burhan]] · [[Omar al-Bashir]] - [[Genocide]] · [[United Arab Emirates]] · [[Meroe Gold]] · [[Wagner Group]] · [[Massad Boulos]]