2023 – Present
ONGOINGWar between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on April 15, 2023 after the breakdown of an uneasy power-sharing arrangement. Fighting devastated Khartoum before the SAF recovered the capital in March 2025. In Darfur, the RSF and allied militias carried out ethnically targeted attacks; the United States determined in January 2025 that RSF members and allied militias had committed genocide, a government determination rather than a judgment by an international court. The RSF captured El Fasher on October 27, 2025 after a long siege. The UN Human Rights Office later documented more than 6,000 killings during the first three days of the offensive and found reasonable grounds to believe war crimes and possible crimes against humanity had occurred. Fighting shifted toward Kordofan. Sudan remained the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 11.3 million forcibly displaced by August 2026. IPC findings confirmed famine with reasonable evidence in El Fasher and Kadugli for a defined 2025–26 analysis period; famine status should always be dated rather than treated as timeless.
Colonial Legacy
Britain's post-WWII withdrawal from Sudan — independence came in 1956 — left behind borders and governance structures that ignored centuries of ethnic, tribal, and religious divisions. The divide between Arab northern elites and African communities in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and the south was carved into law by colonial administration.
Proxy Roots
Sudan was a Cold War battleground where the US, USSR, Libya, and Egypt all backed competing Sudanese factions, militarizing groups that would later fracture the state. The RSF itself descends from the Janjaweed militias — armed and funded during decades of proxy conflict — that carried out the Darfur genocide of 2003–08.
Chapter-by-chapter narrative with maps, primary sources, and key events.
Explore battles on a live map with a timeline slider and territory overlays.
Deep-dive into every major engagement — commanders, casualties, significance.
Biographical flip cards with real portraits, facts, and full biography pages.
Trace each figure's full life journey — birth, education, battles, and death — on a live map.
Scroll-driven visualization of casualties — each dot a thousand lives.
Weapons, war machines, and the military innovations that defined how this conflict was fought.
Cause-and-effect chains tracing the war's long shadow on history.
War crimes, massacres, and the darkest chapters of this conflict — documented for history.
War between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on April 15, 2023 after the breakdown of an uneasy power-sharing arrangement. Fighting devastated Khartoum before the SAF recovered the capital in March 2025. In Darfur, the RSF and allied militias carried out ethnically targeted attacks; the United States determined in January 2025 that RSF members and allied militias had committed genocide, a government determination rather than a judgment by an international court. The RSF captured El Fasher on October 27, 2025 after a long siege. The UN Human Rights Office later documented more than 6,000 killings during the first three days of the offensive and found reasonable grounds to believe war crimes and possible crimes against humanity had occurred. Fighting shifted toward Kordofan. Sudan remained the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 11.3 million forcibly displaced by August 2026. IPC findings confirmed famine with reasonable evidence in El Fasher and Kadugli for a defined 2025–26 analysis period; famine status should always be dated rather than treated as timeless.
Sudan Civil War was fought from 2023 to the present day.
Sudan Civil War was fought between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
An estimated 265,000 people died in Sudan Civil War, including roughly 50,000 military and 215,000 civilian deaths. Figures are scholarly estimates and vary by source.
Major engagements included Battle of Khartoum, Battle of El Fasher, Massacre at El Geneina, and RSF Darfur Offensive.