The War

On 15 April 2023, fighting broke out in Khartoum between two factions of Sudan's security apparatus: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Both had jointly seized power in the October 2021 coup against Sudan's civilian-led transitional government. By April 2023, they were at war with each other.

Two years later, Sudan is the site of the largest displacement crisis in the world — 9.3 million people internally displaced and 4.4 million who have fled to neighbouring countries (UN OCHA, 2026) — and the documented site of mass civilian killings, ethnically-targeted violence in Darfur, and systematic sexual violence against women and girls.

This page sets out the structural facts. Documentation of specific violations lives in Documented Incidents. Women's experience of the war is covered in Women & Girls Under Siege.

DAR Talks does not align with either armed party. Both the SAF and the RSF have been credibly accused of war crimes. Our position is anti-violence-against-women and pro-accountability — applied without favour to either side.

On this page, in time

The deeper sections of this page are still being drafted. Each will be published as a sourced expansion of the summary above.

• Timeline: April 2023 — present. A dated record of major escalations, ceasefires (and their failures), and turning points.
• Who is fighting whom — guide to the actors. SAF, RSF, allied militias, and the political bodies behind each.
• External actors and supply chains. The states and intermediaries documented as supplying arms, fuel, and finance to the parties.
• How Sudan reached April 2023 — the longer arc. From the 2019 revolution to the 2021 coup to the rupture between the SAF and the RSF.

Updated 16 May 2026. Last source review 16 May 2026.