UN calls it world’s worst humanitarian crisis as SAF and RSF remain locked in devastating power struggle
PORT SUDAN, April 25, 2026 (GLOBAL ECHOS )
Sudan’s civil war between the national armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces entered its fourth year this week, with the conflict having displaced millions of people and producing what United Nations officials describe as the gravest humanitarian emergency on the planet.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo known as Hemedti erupted in April 2023 over a dispute over the integration of the two forces. Since then, fighting has consumed vast swaths of the country, with some of the most intense violence concentrated in the Darfur region, where a UN fact-finding mission has identified what it described as the hallmarks of genocide.
In recent weeks, the SAF announced a return of its government operations to Khartoum after nearly three years of conducting affairs from Port Sudan as a temporary capital, and the Central Bank of Sudan resumed operations in the capital for the first time since hostilities began. The symbolic recapture of Khartoum came after months of grinding advances, though large territories in Darfur and Kordofan remain contested or under RSF control.
Despite intermittent ceasefire talks brokered by regional and international mediators, competing interests among neighbouring states and a lack of unified international pressure have blocked meaningful progress. The European Union recently imposed sanctions on several individuals, including Hemedti’s brother Major Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, for their role in escalating the conflict.
UN Resident Coordinator Denise Brown, speaking from Sudan, said the country faces a deepening famine risk that could affect millions of people who have been cut off from aid by the fighting and movement restrictions.
