Sudan war stalemate

Sudan’s war has entered a fourth year with no winner in sight, and the country is now effectively split between two rival centers of power. (aljazeera.com) The Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, retook much of Khartoum and the Nile corridor in 2025, while the Rapid Support Forces stayed entrenched in Darfur and parts of Kordofan. Al Jazeera’s latest mapping says the army now dominates the east and center, while the RSF holds most of Darfur. (interactive.aljazeera.com) That territorial split hardened into rival administrations in 2025, with the army backing a civilian-led authority in Port Sudan and the RSF setting up a rival government in Nyala. Front lines in Kordofan remain contested, and neither side has shown it can impose national control. (interactive.aljazeera.com) The war began on April 15, 2023, after a power struggle between the army and the RSF shattered a stalled transition to civilian rule that had already been derailed by the October 2021 coup. The two forces had previously ruled together before turning their weapons on each other in Khartoum and across the country. (nbcnews.com) Three years later, the humanitarian toll has grown even as the battlefield has settled into a stalemate. The United Nations said this week that Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. (news.un.org) NBC News, citing the Associated Press, reported that at least 59,000 people have been killed, about 13 million have been forced from their homes, and parts of Sudan have been pushed into famine. Aid groups and UN agencies say hunger, displacement, and attacks on health services continue to spread. (nbcnews.com) Women and girls are facing a distinct emergency inside that broader collapse. UN News said on April 17 that the war has created the world’s most severe humanitarian and protection crisis for women and girls, and UN Women said the number of people needing sexual-violence support has quadrupled as abuse becomes a defining feature of the conflict. (news.un.org) (reliefweb.int) The fighting is also becoming deadlier for civilians far from the main front lines. Al Jazeera, citing the United Nations, reported that nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes in Sudan since the start of 2026. (aljazeera.com) Diplomacy has not changed the military balance. At a Berlin conference on April 15, donor countries pledged about 1.3 billion euros, or roughly $1.5 billion, for humanitarian aid, but the meeting produced no ceasefire and no sign that either armed side would scale back operations. (aljazeera.com) (news.un.org) Both sides have been accused of attacking civilians during the war, including in Darfur and Khartoum. The army says it is fighting a rebellion, and the RSF has repeatedly denied some atrocity allegations, but rights groups, aid workers, and UN officials continue to document abuses by both camps. (aljazeera.com) (news.un.org) For now, Sudan is stuck between two armed authorities, shrinking aid pipelines, and a war that has outlasted repeated mediation drives. The fourth year opened this week with the map more fixed, but civilian life more precarious. (nbcnews.com) (aljazeera.com)