Two years into the conflict in Sudan, the nation stays engulfed in one of many world’s largest and fastest-growing displacement crises.
Since April 15, 2023, a brutal battle for energy between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Speedy Assist Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, has turned cities into battlegrounds and compelled greater than 14 million individuals to flee their houses.
In latest weeks, the SAF has taken the capital, Khartoum, and compelled the RSF to retreat.
Greater than 11,000 recorded assaults
From April 15, 2023, to March 28, 2025, not less than 11,292 assaults had been recorded, averaging 16 per day, in response to the Armed Battle Location & Occasion Information (ACLED) mission.
In response to it, Sudan’s military was behind 50 p.c of all recorded assaults (5,615), whereas the RSF carried out 38 p.c (4,291). The remaining 12 p.c (1,386 assaults) had been attributed to numerous different teams, together with the Darfur Communal Militia, Darfur Arab Militia, Sudan Folks’s Liberation Motion, Twic Clan Militia, and others.
These assaults embrace armed clashes, air or drone strikes, shelling, artillery or missile assaults, looting or property destruction, and distant explosives or landmines.
The map beneath exhibits the geographical unfold and depth of battle incidents throughout Sudan’s 18 states.
Practically three-quarters of all assaults have centred round three important areas:
Khartoum
Sudan’s capital has been the epicentre, with 5,519 assaults, or 49 p.c of all recorded incidents.
The military maintains its operations in and across the capital, saying it goals to dislodge the remaining RSF positions.
Gezira
Simply south of Khartoum, Gezira – Sudan’s key agricultural state – has recorded 1,485 assaults, which is 13 p.c of whole incidents.
As soon as thought-about comparatively secure, it grew to become a key battleground as RSF forces expanded southwards.
North Darfur
In North Darfur, the RSF has launched a number of assaults on displacement camps and native militias. The area has seen 1,388 assaults – 12 p.c of the nationwide whole.
Remainder of Sudan
The remaining 26 p.c of the combating has been unfold throughout the nation, together with:
- South Darfur: 511 assaults (5 p.c)
- North Kordofan: 463 assaults (4 p.c)
- West Darfur: 310 assaults (3 p.c)
Tens of hundreds of individuals killed
In response to ACLED, not less than 32,973 individuals have been reported killed throughout Sudan, although the precise dying toll is probably going a lot increased, particularly when accounting for deaths brought on by oblique causes such because the unfold of illness, malnutrition, and lack of satisfactory healthcare.
Half of the recorded deaths have occurred in Khartoum and North Darfur, which have the very best casualty charge.
Timeline of assaults
After months of rising tensions, on April 15, 2023, heavy gunfire and explosions erupted in Khartoum, a metropolis of 10 million individuals. Gunfire was heard close to key places, together with the military headquarters, the Ministry of Defence, the presidential palace, and Khartoum worldwide airport.
By the top of August 2023, assaults reached their highest depth, with 675 mixed assaults recorded. The United Nations reported that a million individuals had fled the nation, and inside displacement had exceeded 3.4 million.
Following a short decline in assaults, violence once more intensified in January 2024. By then, the UN reported that eight million individuals had been displaced by the conflict as famine loomed throughout the nation.
In September 2024, the SAF carried out air raids in opposition to RSF positions in Khartoum, its largest assault in months.
A slight decline within the frequency of assaults was noticed after January 2025. Whereas violence remained concentrated in key areas, there was a short respite from the depth of earlier months.
Khartoum airport was plane graveyard
Utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery over the previous two years, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking company, Sanad, has mapped in depth destruction at Khartoum worldwide airport.
Evaluation reveals that the battle has led to the destruction of not less than 49 plane and extreme injury to some 70 airport buildings, together with runways, infrastructure, and different services.
14 million individuals displaced
The UN says Sudan is going through the world’s worst displacement disaster, because the conflict continues with no sign of ending.
Greater than 14 million individuals have been compelled to flee their houses because of the ongoing battle.
Of these, not less than 11.3 million individuals have been displaced inside Sudan, in response to the newest figures from the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).
Not less than three million individuals have crossed worldwide borders, putting immense pressure on neighbouring nations, together with Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt.
Fundamental areas of origin for displaced individuals:
- Khartoum: 3,500,400 displaced (31% of the entire)
- South Darfur: 2,082,537 displaced (18%)
- North Darfur: 1,844,175 displaced (16%)
Fundamental locations for the internally displaced individuals:
- South Darfur: 1,837,706 displaced (16% of the entire)
- North Darfur: 1,786,909 displaced (16%)
- River Nile: 935,723 displaced (8%)