Sudan

Why Sudan matters

Sudan is Africa's third largest country by area, sharing borders with seven nations and sitting at the intersection of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Nile Valley. Since April 2023, it has been torn apart by a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that grew out of the Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur. The conflict has produced what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement crisis: over 10 million people forced from their homes.

Famine conditions have been declared in multiple regions including parts of Darfur and North Kordofan. Hospitals have been bombed, aid convoys blocked, and entire cities have changed hands in fighting that has killed tens of thousands. The scale of destruction has drawn comparisons to Syria, yet Sudan has received a fraction of the international media attention that crisis generated.

The war carries consequences far beyond Sudan's borders. Ethiopia's western Amhara region is directly exposed to RSF activity and refugee flows. Egypt's Nile water strategy depends partly on Sudan's political alignment. Chad has absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees and faces its own destabilisation risk. Sudan is not a peripheral crisis: it is a central node in the geopolitics of the Sahel-Horn corridor, and its trajectory will shape regional stability for years to come.