No Quarter

Sudan’s army will continue its offensive to reclaim the capital Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), military officials said this week, intensifying a 17-month-long civil war despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire, the BBC reported.

Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Gabir confirmed the military’s commitment to recapturing the city, saying that “peace talks can go on, but the army will not stop” until the RSF vacates the areas of the country it has occupied, including large parts of Khartoum.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been grappling with a civil conflict following a dispute between army leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti) over the country’s future.

Fighting has killed more than 150,000 people, displaced around 10 million others and pushed half of the country’s population to the brink of famine.

Aid access remains limited, though some progress has been made in recent months, with several hundred trucks delivering supplies to previously blocked areas. Still, aid organizations report ongoing looting of humanitarian goods by the RSF, particularly in the besieged North Darfur city El Fasher.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has not officially declared a famine – a move that could unlock more humanitarian relief.

The war has also drawn in several foreign countries: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been accused of supplying advanced weapons to the RSF, while Iran and Russia are allegedly supporting the Sudanese military, according to Deutsche Welle.

Mercenaries from Chad and Ukrainian pilots have also reportedly been involved in the conflict.

The United States and other countries, including Egypt and Switzerland, have to date tried unsuccessfully to secure a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s former civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, warned that the civil war risks turning Sudan into “fertile ground” for regional terrorism, the Financial Times noted.

Hamdok, who led the country between 2019 and 2022, expressed concern that the instability could connect various Islamist armed groups allied with al Qaeda in West Africa with other jihadists, such as Somalia’s al-Shabab.

Sudan was for many years on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism before it was removed under Hamdok in 2020.