Understanding Sudan & Darfur

This video and factsheet are an introduction to the situation in Sudan and Darfur. You can read the latest developments and commentary in Updates & Analysis and find more in-depth information in our Resource Library.

Sudan is facing the world’s largest displacement crisis and one of the gravest humanitarian emergencies in the world because of conflict, and the vast region of Darfur in western Sudan is a focal point.

Fighting erupted in April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), nominally government forces, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group. The war has devastated large parts of the country, but Darfur, which experienced devastating violence and genocide in 2003, is again the site of mass atrocities, ethnic targeting, sexual violence, starvation, and forced displacement.

According to UN-linked displacement data, as of late April 2026 more than 11.5 million people had been forcibly displaced by the Sudan crisis, including more than 4.5 million people who had fled or returned across borders and about 6.7 million internally displaced inside Sudan since April 2023. The UN and aid agencies have reported more than 40,000 deaths, while warning that the real toll is likely much higher because large areas remain inaccessible.

Sudan has struggled with conflict and political upheaval for many years since it became independent in 1956, particularly since the 1989 military coup that brought Omar al-Bashir to power and contributed to wars in Darfur and other regions.

Darfur is home to numerous ethnic and tribal groups and has long been politically and economically marginalized by Sudan’s central government. In 2003, in response to disputes over power, resources, and representation, the Sudanese government and allied Janjaweed militias carried out a scorched-earth campaign against communities in Darfur of non-Arab African ethnicity. Villages were burned, civilians were killed, women and girls were raped, and food stores, crops, and water sources were destroyed. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum summarizes that between 2003 and 2008, the conflict and targeted killings caused about 300,000 civilian deaths and displaced about 2.7 million people.

That earlier genocide did not truly “end” in the sense that there was very little or no accountability, return, or repair, and the present war continues the patterns of violence, human rights abuse and atrocities.

It reported that the RSF, during the siege of El Fasher and surrounding areas that culminated in October 2025, committed crimes including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, forced displacement, and persecution on ethnic, gender, and political grounds. Large-scale killings of civilians from non-Arab communities, including the Zaghawa, Fur, Masalit, and Tunjur, were reported.

In October 2025, the ICC convicted former Janjaweed leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman for war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities in Darfur in 2003–2004. In December 2025, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the ICC’s first conviction for crimes committed in Darfur.

The ICC is investigating new allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur since April 2023 under its existing Darfur mandate.

Diplomatically, international actors have called for a ceasefire, humanitarian access, civilian protection, and a political process. A “Quad” process involving the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates has proposed a humanitarian truce followed by a ceasefire and political transition, but diplomacy has been slow and repeatedly overtaken by battlefield developments.

The UN Security Council has maintained Darfur-related sanctions, including an arms embargo, travel bans, and asset freezes. In September 2025, the Council renewed the sanctions regime until September 2026 and extended the Panel of Experts mandate until October 2026.

In summary, the international community is documenting atrocities, funding some relief, imposing limited sanctions, and pursuing diplomacy, but it has not stopped the violence, protected civilians in Darfur, ensured safe humanitarian access at scale, or enforced accountability.