SUDAN · GEOPOLITICS
Key Facts
—World’s largest crisis: Sudan’s war, now in its third year, has become the planet’s gravest humanitarian emergency.
—Roughly 150,000 dead: That is the widely cited estimate of lives lost since the fighting erupted in April 2023.
—Half the population hungry: About 21 million people face acute hunger, and famine is spreading across Darfur and Kordofan.
—Foreign fighters: Human Rights Watch says Colombian mercenaries, trained on UAE bases, joined the assault on the Darfur city of El Fasher.
—The UAE link: Sudanese victims have asked the ICC to investigate Emirati officials; the UAE denies any role in the war.
—A possible opening: With Gulf tensions easing, mediators hope Sudan’s outside backers can be pushed toward a ceasefire.
Sudan’s war is being sustained less by the two Sudanese forces fighting it than by the foreign money, weapons and hired soldiers flowing in from outside, rights groups and United Nations investigators say. The result is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and a test of whether outside powers can be pressed to switch it off.
Who is fighting Sudan’s war
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between its national army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias blamed for atrocities in Darfur two decades ago.
The fighting has split the country and emptied its cities. The western region of Darfur, and its capital El Fasher, has become the epicentre of the worst violence.
Neither side has been able to land a knockout blow. Instead the country has effectively been carved in two, with rival administrations and a shattered economy.
The foreign hands
Sudan’s army and UN experts have long accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF, a charge Abu Dhabi firmly denies. New evidence has sharpened that claim.
A Human Rights Watch report published in May 2026, titled From Bogota to El Fasher, found that an Abu Dhabi-based security firm hired hundreds of Colombian contractors who helped the RSF storm El Fasher. Researchers documented Colombian fighters still in Darfur as recently as January 2026.
Sudan’s own gold has helped pay for the fighting, much of it mined in areas the RSF controls and spirited out through neighbouring countries. The trade has given the war an economic engine of its own.
Why a Latin American thread runs through it
The Colombian connection is a striking detail for readers across the Americas. Battle-hardened former soldiers from Colombia, cheap to hire and far from home, have been recruited for a war on the other side of the world.
It is a reminder that Africa’s conflicts increasingly draw in money and manpower from across the Global South. The same private-security trade that touches Latin America now reaches the dunes of Darfur.
The human catastrophe
The cost to civilians is staggering. Roughly 150,000 people are estimated to have died, and about half of Sudan’s population faces acute hunger as famine takes hold.
UN investigators concluded that the RSF used starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime. Rights groups have also documented ethnic-cleansing campaigns against the Massalit and other non-Arab communities in West Darfur.
Hospitals have been bombed or abandoned, and disease is spreading through crowded camps. Aid workers describe a generation of children growing up amid hunger and gunfire.
A war the world has barely watched
For all its scale, Sudan’s war has drawn a fraction of the attention given to conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East. Aid agencies say their appeals remain badly underfunded.
The United Nations calls it the largest displacement crisis on earth, with well over 10 million people driven from their homes. Many have fled with nothing.
Yet the fallout reaches far beyond Sudan’s borders. Refugees have poured into Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, straining fragile neighbours already short of food and money.
The country also sits on the Red Sea, an artery for global trade. A Sudan in chaos adds one more risk to a region the world cannot easily ignore.
Is there a way out?
A narrow opening may be emerging. With tensions in the Gulf easing after a wider regional de-escalation, mediators hope they can lean on Sudan’s foreign backers to halt the flow of arms and fighters.
Pressure is also building in the courts, as Sudanese victims press the International Criminal Court to examine the UAE’s role. For now, no ceasefire is in sight, and the suffering deepens.
Why it matters to the wider world
Sudan’s collapse is not a distant tragedy with only local effects. The war is reshaping migration routes, with some of those displaced eventually attempting the dangerous journey toward Europe.
It is also a warning about the privatisation of war. When wealthy states can rent armies of foreign contractors, conflicts become cheaper to wage and harder to trace.
For a global audience, that is the uncomfortable lesson of Darfur. The fight is Sudanese, but the money, weapons and fighters increasingly are not.
Frequently asked questions
Who is fighting in Sudan’s war?
Sudan’s national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have fought since April 2023, with the Darfur region at the centre of the violence.
What foreign role have rights groups documented?
Human Rights Watch reported that Colombian mercenaries, trained on UAE bases, took part in the RSF’s assault on El Fasher; the UAE denies backing the RSF.
How severe is the humanitarian crisis?
About 150,000 people are estimated to have died, and roughly half the population faces acute hunger as famine spreads.
Could the war end soon?
Mediators hope that easing tensions in the Gulf will let them press Sudan’s foreign backers toward a ceasefire, though no deal is in sight.
Connected Coverage
Sudan’s war is the darkest front in the contest of outside powers we map in Africa: The New Scramble and across our Northern Africa coverage. The same rivalry plays out in trade and minerals, from Washington’s tariff threats on African economies to the West’s push to reopen the Lobito mineral railway.
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