Sudan Crisis 2024 - What You Need To Know
This guide is for those who want to learn more about the war in Sudan. It is part of our educational resources list and was last updated April 29, 2024.
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Where is Sudan?
Sudan is in northeast Africa, just south of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea.
The country sits on the geographic and cultural crossroads of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Sudan shares borders with seven other countries: Libya, Egypt, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.
What’s the crisis?
A civil war began in Sudan on April 2023. Extreme violence has turned the capital city of Khartoum into a lawless and bloodied shell of its former self. Several cities have been devastated by intense fighting and countless villages razed.
Over 70% of Sudan’s healthcare system has collapsed and preventable disease outbreaks are spreading. Many farmers cannot work and large-scale humanitarian access is being blocked by armed combatants. The economy has disintegrated and the prices of basic goods have skyrocketed. Most schools are closed, too.
Famine looms over entire swaths of the country and will likely end up claiming more lives than the war itself.
Who is responsible?
There are two primary armed groups in this civil war:
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) - the country’s official military that includes the army, air force, and navy.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - a regional paramilitary outfit created by a previous military regime.
There are a variety of intelligence units, police forces, and local militias that have taken sides in the conflict. The RSF also hires mercenaries from across the Sahel. Some of Sudan’s rebel groups that formed in previous wars have taken sides, while others have remained neutral or are defending their own territory and people groups.
The RSF is using the fog of war to target ethnic minorities and ordinary citizens who speak out against the violence. It is widely recognized that war crimes are being committed on a large-scale by SAF and RSF, and there is strong evidence that a genocide is being committed by the RSF in the western Darfur region.
How many people are suffering?
Sudan is now home to the world’s largest and worst humanitarian disaster, far outpacing every other crisis on the planet.
Over 25 million Sudanese —half the country— are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Over 8 million Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes or have left Sudan altogether.
730,000 Sudanese children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
Nearly 20 million children can no longer attend school.
Conservative projections are that 230,000 children, pregnant women, and new mothers will die from hunger by December if the situation does not improve soon.
Extreme violence has made it too dangerous to determine a death toll. There are credible reports that over the first three months of the war up to 15,000 of the ethnically African Masalit people were slaughtered in El Geneina, Darfur. That is just one city. More reports of mass killings leak out of Sudan every week. It is likely that the death toll is already into the mid-tens of thousands.
Why are SAF and RSF fighting?
SAF and RSF used to be allies, but that began to change after they overthrew the government in October 2021. Tensions between SAF and RSF have been building ever since.
The RSF has been the junior partner in the regime and wants to be the dominant player in Sudan. RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemeti) has his eyes on becoming a dictator and his fighters already call him emir, or president. SAF is fighting to remain the elite player in Sudan. There are also significant ethnic dimensions at play that cannot be ignored:
RSF- Top RSF commanders and most of their fighters hail from the western Darfur region’s Arab tribes. A sizable portion of the RSF adheres to an extremely racist, Arab-supremacist ideology. The belief system states that Darfur’s historic African tribal groups must be cleansed from the region and that all other Sudanese Arabs are inferior. As such, the RSF has renewed its massacres of ethnically African communities in Darfur during the war, especially the Masalit tribe.
SAF - Generals are mostly Nile Valley Arabs, representing the most elite and privileged ethnic groups in the country. Unlike the RSF, SAF is a fairly diverse fighting force with soldiers from various parts of the country in its ranks. Racism does exist in SAF, which explains why members of the force have executed civilians on an ethnic basis as well.
SAF and RSF were preparing for war with each other in early 2023. Fighting erupted in Khartoum on April 15 of that year. Both sides failed to decapitate each others’ leadership, and fighting quickly spread across the country.
Which side is winning the war?
For most of the war the RSF has the most momentum. SAF generals largely fought a defensive war since April 2023 and have only recently ground the RSF onslaught to a halt. SAF recently launched major military offensive operations around Khartoum, but in most other frontline areas fighting is at a stalemate.
RSF currently controls most of western Sudan and the bulk of Khartoum. SAF controls most of the north and east of the country and is gaining limited ground in central Sudan, mostly on the outskirts of Khartoum. What remains of pre-war governing institutions have relocated to Port Sudan in the far-east.
One side winning this war outright is unlikely in the near term, for two reasons:
Both sides remain heavily-armed and are now deeply entrenched in most areas under their control. There is little evidence either can capture the entire country this year.
It can not be overstated how the vast majority of Sudan’s besieged citizenry detest the RSF and want SAF to behave like a responsible military. If the RSF were to win decisively, the paramilitary force would face a seething population that will never accept their rule. The Sudanese people won’t accept another SAF regime either. Generals on both sides are fighting an intense war with each other, but what either side stands to win is a country that wants neither of them in charge.
Are world leaders doing anything to end this?
World leaders have largely turned to off-the-shelf diplomatic solutions that are designed to deal with neither the complexities nor severity of this crisis. The U.S. and European Union are sanctioning some SAF and RSF generals, but they are not having any impact on the ground. Multiple rounds of peace talks led by various countries and organizations —including the United States, Saudi Arabia, IGAD, and the African Union— have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire or improve humanitarian aid access. Funding for humanitarian aid is also abysmally low, with the United Nations, large relief agencies, and smaller organizations like us having too few resources to meet the needs we are seeing.
The immediate diplomatic issue is that the international community is not holding SAF and RSF generals accountable which, in turn, is incentivizing them to continue the war. Some global actors are even making the crisis worse by arming one of the two sides. The United Arab Emirates and Russian Wagner group are smuggling weapons and vehicles to the RSF. SAF has received some support from Egypt and Ukraine and continues receiving weapons from Iran, China, and Russia.
A coalition of Sudanese civilian groups —led by former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok who was overthrown in the 2021 coup— has emerged to serve as a credible alternative to SAF and RSF. Ordinary Sudanese across the country are trying to help their neighbors survive every day. The international community could and should be doing much more than it is, including throwing its full weight behind Sudanese citizen initiatives to save Sudan from becoming a failed state.
What can I do to help?
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For over a decade, we've allied people just like you with incredible Sudanese heroes on the ground. We are making the story of Sudan known, empowering survivors, and helping to build a renewed Sudan from the ground up.
Our Sudanese partners are struggling as the war spreads and program costs skyrocket. You generosity will help them continue saving and changing lives in the days ahead.
$2,200: Fund an entire classroom at Endure Primary School for one semester.
$1,000: Pays monthly salaries of 5 midwives.
$500 - Delivers food and clothing to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled into South Sudan.
$250 - Supports a teacher and their classroom for one month.
$150 - Pays a nurse assistant’s salary for an entire month.
$100 - Give pencils, notebooks and other supplies to 16 students in Yida Refugee Camp.
$50 - Gives a day’s worth of medicine to three clinics.
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Checks can be make payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
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How is this not the biggest story in the world right now‽ https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-crisis-2024-what-you-need-to-know
It’s not in the news, but the world’s largest humanitarian disaster right now is unfolding in Sudan. Check out this informative guide: https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-crisis-2024-what-you-need-to-know
Nearly 25 million Sudanese are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Roughly 1 in every 8 internally-displaced people worldwide is now Sudanese. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-crisis-2024-what-you-need-to-know
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs. For over a decade, we've allied people just like you with incredible Sudanese heroes on the ground. Will you join us? https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-crisis-2024-what-you-need-to-know
