Twenty-two years ago this month, the Darfur region of Sudan was ravaged by genocide within a wider, drawn-out, civil war between dictator Omar al-Bashir’s Khartoum government and non-Arab, non-Muslim, and ethnically African groups in the country’s south. Carried out by Bashir-sponsored militias known as the Janjaweed, these ethnic Arab militia groups killed more than 400,000 people, mostly ethnic African pastoralists from the Fur, Maasalit, and Zaghawa groups. The Darfur genocide was recognized by the United Nations, the US government, the International Criminal Court, and the African Union in the early 2000s, and the civil war ended in 2005 through the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the independence of the new nation of South Sudan in 2011.
However, in 2025, genocide, as recognized by the US State Department under the Biden administration, has returned to Darfur and greater Sudan. This time, it is being carried out by the paramilitary rebel group RSF(Rapid Support Forces), which grew out of the earlier Janjaweed. This militia is engaged in a brutal war with the SAF(Sudanese Armed Forces), during which both parties have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of international humanitarian law as reported by a UN Fact-Finding Mission in September of 2024. The evidence for these violations is found in indiscriminate and direct attacks on densely populated civilian areas and critical infrastructure, mass ethnic killings, intentional obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The de facto government of the country, the Sudanese military is currently led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who rose to power in a 2021 coup d’état by overthrowing the country’s transitional government following the 2019 end to the 30-year rule of the aforementioned dictator al-Bashir. The rebel RSF is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, and supported by the UAE in their campaign against the SAF.
As a result of this war, which began in April 2023, Sudan is currently experiencing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with 11.3 million people currently displaced from their homes and 25 million people facing acute hunger. Large-scale, 1980s-style famine has already been confirmed in a Darfur displacement camp and is looming in other areas where millions of refugees are sheltered. To avoid this, a ceasefire must be reached between the RSF and the SAF so that aid already allocated can be distributed and new aid brought in to alleviate immediate needs.
As of February 11th, the SAF has made major advances in recapturing the capital city Khartoum from the RSF and is poised to control this area. The current downfall of the RSF is likely attributable to stretched supply lines and declining morale, as well as the strengthening of the SAF through its embrace of Islamist militias as allies. While this might seem like an opportunity for the war to end, the RSF continues to hold large portions of territory in Darfur and the surrounding areas as the SAF diversifies its fighting force while complicating its long-term interests. This places both parties in terrible situations for stability and governance in the future, given that the leaders of both groups are largely seen as illegitimate while outside interests of the UAE and Islamist militias harness increasing power over the imploding conflict. The true loser in this situation is, of course, the Sudanese people, who have been failed on every side of the conflict and are in desperate need of recognition and aid in the deadly crossfire of this war.
