• What’s Happening? War, famine, atrocities, a repressive political environment nationwide, and the largest refugee crisis in the world.

• Where Is This War? Sudan was once the largest country in Africa, until the independence of South Sudan in 2011. Fighting began in the capital, Khartoum, in 2023, intensified along the Nile Valley in 2024, and shifted west toward the arid regions of Darfur and Kordofan in 2025.

• Who is Fighting?

  • Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — The national military, shaped by decades of authoritarian rule and now controlled by a military junta.

  • Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — A coalition of Sudanese Arab militias (often described as a paramilitary) originating in Darfur and West Kordofan. Formerly aligned with the military, the RSF became independently powerful and mutinied in 2023, triggering the civil war.

• Why Are They Fighting? Motivations include power, money, ideology, nationalism, and ethnic hatred. There is also the internal logic of a prolonged war: years of fighting, mass atrocities, and heavy losses on both sides have fueled a cycle of revenge and open calls for extermination of the enemy. Even Sudanese who desperately want the war to end struggle to imagine what peace or coexistence might look like.
  
  
• The Outside Backers:

  • Egypt and Turkey are key supporters of the Sudanese military, providing both political backing and practical assistance. Iran also 

  • The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the leading supplier of the RSF, providing attack drones, armored cars, medical treatment for wounded combatants, and financing entire 

  • Chad has played a more passive but still critical role by allowing RSF rear-area operations on its territory, including recruitment, military logistics, and economic activities. Kenya, while officially neutral, has permitted the RSF to conduct political organizing within its borders.

• The Outside Backers:

  • Egypt and Turkey are key supporters of the Sudanese military, providing both political backing and practical assistance. Iran also 

  • The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the leading supplier of the RSF, providing attack drones, armored cars, medical treatment for wounded combatants, and financing entire 

  • Chad has played a more passive but still critical role by allowing RSF rear-area operations on its territory, including recruitment, military logistics, and economic activities. Kenya, while officially neutral, has permitted the RSF to conduct political organizing within its borders.

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Sudan War Monitor helps readers make sense of a tragic, intractable conflict — what drives it, who suffers, and what could change. Sudan’s war has unleashed the world’s deepest famine and largest refugee crisis. It is deadlier than Gaza’s war, fought in a country larger than Ukraine. Yet the conflict is complex and widely misunderstood.

Their team publishes analysis, conflict reports, human rights investigations, maps, and verified videos from the war zone. They also cover peace efforts and the humanitarian response. Using open-source research and journalism techniques, Sudan War Monitor documents conflict events and war crimes, analyze conflict patterns, identify perpetrators, and give voice to victims.