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The civil war taking place in Sudan has been raging for over a year – we set out to examine it, and its causes.
Last April, the country of Sudan fell into a civil war during the Islamic holy period of Ramadan as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a coalition bolstered by the Janjaweed Arab nomad militia. The resulting conflict has led to intense fighting in and around the capital city of Khartoum and in the western Darfur region, where international observers have noted shocking instances of ethnic cleansing and other crimes not seen since the previous conflict in 2003. This is actually the third civil conflict in the nation – the last took place from 1983 to 2005 resulting in the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation in 2011.
The internal conflict between the SAF and the RAF began when Sudan’s strongman Omar al-Bashir (who created the RSF in 2013) was ousted in 2019 by the army, with the help of the RSF. Both factions would rule in a junta despite mediation from the African Union & international pressure, but as the SAF under Ahmed Fattah Al Burhan sought to transfer power to a democratic government, the RSF led by Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo balked perceiving a Khartoum-centered administration. The RSF would attack government structures in Khartoum, and carry out attacks in Darfur which the Human Rights Watch said have been against the Massalit people and non-Arab communities specifically. The United Nations estimates that 20,000 have been killed and 33,000 injured including foreign nationals since the war began, with 7.7 million people displaced and 2.1 million who’ve fled the country as refugees.
There has also been a ramping up of sexual violence in the Darfur region to rival what took place there 21 years ago. “Men in RSF uniform and armed men affiliated with the RSF were reported to be responsible for 81% of the documented incidents,” said U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Volker Türk in March. But the attention from world powers – outside of allegations of military involvement from Russia and the United Arab Emirates – has been sorely lacking. “Why are people not paying attention to what is happening?” U.N. envoy Alice Nderitu said in an interview. “If we do not break the cycle of impunity, then we will not be able to address the root causes of the violence and re-establish solid foundations for the future.”