SUMMARY
Sudan has been plagued by armed conflicts involving various ethnic groups, political factions, and regional tensions since gaining independence from the United Kingdom 1956. The country’s wide spectrum of ethnicity, language, and religion, alongside its rich natural resources, has played a significant role in fueling these conflicts. Moreover, political elites competing for power in the capital city of Khartoum have further exacerbated the situation. These factors have contributed to the complexity and persistence of Sudan’s ongoing struggles with internal conflicts.
Since 1989, Sudan has experienced the inter-state, intrastate, non-state and one-sided categories of organized violence, as defined by the UCDP.
2025
In 2025, the overall level of violence in Sudan increased dramatically compared to the previous year. While non-state conflict rose slightly, both state-based and one-sided violence escalated sharpy, with one-sided violence accounting for a substantial share of the overall increase.
State-based conflict over government remained the primary driver of violence. In February 2025, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-North) formed an alliance under the name of Sudan Founding Alliance (SFA). Consequently, the conflict over government was primarily fought between the Government of Sudan, represented by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the SFA. Throughout 2025, this conflict resulted in over 12 000 reported fatalities, with sustained and intense fighting across multiple states, particularly in North and South Darfur, and North, South, and West Kordofan, as well as in Khartoum state. Territorial shifts throughout the year, including continued contestation over key urban centers and strategic regions, further reshaped patterns of violence and civilian vulnerability.
The conflict was also been marked by widespread human rights violations, as both the SAF and RSF perpetrated one-sided violence against civilians. The RSF, in particular, continued to carry out large-scale massacres and ethnically targeted violence, patterns that had characterized the conflict since its outset. In 2025, especially following the capture of El Fasher in late October, RSF forces were reported to have executed an estimated 60 000 civilians in the town and surrounding areas in the weeks that followed. Government forces, also carried out executions of civilians, particularly in areas experiencing shifts in territorial control. Most notably, in and around Wad Madani in January, SAF-affiliated forces were reported to have killed over 200 civilians.
Non-state conflict remained comparatively limited during the year, with only the conflict involving SLFA, SLM/A, and RSF surpassing the 25 battle-related deaths threshold. In January, SLFA and SLM/A temporarily allied against RSF operations in North Darfur, leading to clashes that caused at least 120 reported fatalities.
Constant violence
Sudan is characterized by a persistent domination of the center over the marginalized peripheries. The center is located in the capital Khartoum and consists of different elites from the northern region of Sudan. Even though the northern region comprises less than two percent of the Sudanese population, they utterly dominate the politics in Sudan. However, this is not a solid united elite but different elites that compete over power among themselves. This competition has meant that Sudan has been ruled by a series of unstable parliamentary governments and military regimes. Regardless of the type of government, the elites from the northern region have been at the country’s helm. This dominance is also evident when it comes to the economy, with the elites based in the center possessing immense private wealth and the people in the marginalized areas being exceedingly poor. These differences between the regions of Sudan have led to grievances, which has contributed to the start of several long and deadly conflicts.
For over 30 years, one of the most dominating conflicts that Sudan has suffered from has been an all-out intrastate conflict over government, which has had devastating consequences for both the population and the environment. Rooted primarily in the centralization of economic and political power in the capital Khartoum and in the marginalization of the peripheral areas, this state-based conflict has involved several different non-state actors fighting against the Government of Sudan. Other important underlying factors in the conflict have included religious and cultural divisions as well as access to natural resources. In recent years the main key actor in the state based conflict against the Government of Sudan has been the rebel alliance called SRF, which has fought the government continuously since 2011 in the Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile regions of the country. (For additional information click the “Read More” button in the linked pages.)
State-based conflicts in Sudan been focused on the north/south nexus of the country up until the early 2000s, but in 2003 fighting broke out in the westernmost region called Darfur, when SLM/A and JEM started armed rebellions against the government. These conflicts set off a wave of violence in the Darfur region in which thousands of civilians were killed. Widespread starvation and diseases followed the outbreak of this conflict and it is believed that as many as 300 000 people died.
2011 was a historic year in Sudan. In January 2011 a huge majority of the population in the southern region of Sudan voted for independence. On 9 July 2011 the new nation of South Sudan was born. The creation of South Sudan had its roots in the decades-long large-scale conflict, starting in 1983, fought by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army based in the south of Sudan and led by John Garang, against the Sudanese government. The SPLM/A was continuously supported by the Government of Uganda during the conflict. The Sudanese government in return supported Uganda rebels in their intrastate conflicts prior to relations between Uganda and Sudan improved in the early 2000s.
However, Sudan and South Sudan quickly found themselves fighting each other in an interstate conflict over their common, disputed, border region called Abyei. The area had been denied its referendum in 2011 and tensions had been building since then with a territorial conflict over Abyei breaking out between the government of Sudan and the then autonomous region of South Sudan already in May 2011.
In addition to the internal conflicts in Sudan, the government of Sudan has a long track record of involving themselves in the intrastate conflicts of their neighboring countries, giving support to one of the warring parties. A recent example of this took place in 2014 and 2015 when Sudan gave support to the rebels called SPLM/A In Opposition in the state-based conflict in South Sudan. Among other things, the SPLM/A In Opposition was allowed to cross the border into South and West Kordofan, having rear bases and places for training on Sudanese territory. There were also numerous reports of troops from the SPLM/A In Opposition being resupplied by the Sudanese army before returning into South Sudan to fight the South Sudanese government. Going beyond secondary non-warring support, the Sudanese government has been part of the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Forces of Hadi in the governmental conflict in Yemen as a secondary warring party since 2015.
One-sided violence has been prevalent in Sudan and the government of Sudan has a practice of arming militias as a response to armed rebellion, many of which are infamous for their gross violations of human rights. The most infamous of these militias is the feared Janjaweed militia, which attacked and burned villages, and raped and killed civilians in Darfur. By 2014 large parts of the Janjaweed had been reformed into the governmental paramilitary forced called the RSF which was under the command of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Sudan. The RSF incorporated as a part of the Sudanese governmental forces has continued to attack civilians following the pattern where civilians are mostly attacked in relation to the ongoing intrastate conflict.
Non-state conflicts have been numerous in Sudan as well. The majority of deaths have taken place in conflicts between communities or ethnic groups in the country. Some of the most violent examples have been the conflicts between the Ma’aliyah and the Rizeigat Baggara and between the Misseriya and the Rizeigat Abbala. The origin of the clashes between the groups has been economic hardships and rivalry concerning natural resources such as land or water. In the early 1990’s the conflict between the non-state groups SPLM/A and SSDF resulted in the deaths of thousands of people in the southern regions of Sudan.
