Since April of 2023, 9,000 people have died in the conflict in Sudan that has enveloped the country.

It has culminated in the displacement of approximately 4.5 million Sudanese people and mass food insecurity that is ravaging the country. The United Nations has declared the war in Sudan to be “one of the fastest unfolding crises globally, with unprecedented needs in such a short period.” This humanitarian crisis has put the future of the North-East African nation in jeopardy.

Civil war

It is a crisis that has evolved out of a civil war between opposing factions within the country’s military junta – the Transitional Sovereignty Council. The factions in question are the military SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, and the paramilitary RSF (Rapid Support Forces) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, one of the prior military heads of the country, who are each vying for control of Sudan.

Precipitating factors 

In the wake of the toppling of the tyrannical thirty-year regime of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and the later overthrow of Sudan’s interim Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in 2021 by General Burhan’s military, there has been immense public outcry for democratic reform in the country.

The future?

It seems inevitable with the mass number of resources and military support that both factions have that this conflict may persist indefinitely. While the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have high hopes that General Burhan and General Dagalo might be persuaded to agree to a ceasefire, this outcome seems unlikely at present. As stated by Ahmed Soliman of Chatham House, “The challenge is that there isn’t a willingness to de-escalate on either side.”

This lack of willingness to cooperate with diplomats reveals the harsh reality that it is unlikely this conflict will cease anytime soon, and the Sudanese people will likely suffer as a result.