A Sudanese army soldier in Omdurman, Sudan, in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
Editor's note:This story contains graphic images of violence and death.
Sudan's catastrophic civil war — a conflict that continues to shatter a country that much of the international community still struggles to pay attention to — is grinding into a third year.
Tens of thousands have been killed since the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group started fighting in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023. The two military factions had seized power from a transitional civilian government in 2021. Then they turned on each other two years later, with devastating consequences.
The facts are well documented. Sudan faces the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with hundreds of thousands suffering from famine, according to the United Nations. The country faces the world's largest displacement crisis — over 15 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
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Sudan's war is 2 years in and shows no signs of slowing, as talks take place
Both sides have been accused of atrocities, with the RSF accused of genocide. The U.S. State Department said the RSF had "systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence."
Smoke rises after the first strikes of the war on April 17, 2023. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
Pieces of projectile explosives found in Omdurman on Jan. 11, 2025. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
The worst of that genocidal violence is in the western Darfur region. Over the last few days the violence has spiraled. More than 300 people have been killed in two major displacement camps near El-Fasher city in the western Darfur region, as the RSF launches a major assault on the last state capital in Darfur under the control of the Sudanese army.
Two years on and the Sudanese army has managed to wrest back control of the capital, Khartoum. Once a charming and vibrant city at the confluence of the banks of the White and Blue Niles, it is now a shadow of its former self. Health services have collapsed, the capital's airport and many major landmarks destroyed, the national museum systematically looted. Much of the city is rubble.
Despite the unprecedented impact of the war, there has been little concerted international action to address it. International donors have so far committed only a fraction of the money called for by the U.N. for Sudan.
On Tuesday, as the war moved into its third year, foreign ministers from 20 countries met in London in an effort to restart stalled peace talks. The conference, co-hosted by the U.K., France and Germany, took place without the main protagonists — the Sudanese army and the RSF.
In his opening remarks, the conference host, the U.K.'s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said: "Many have given up on Sudan. That is wrong. ... We simply cannot look away." But so far, it seems that the world has.
People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control rest in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila, in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region, on April 13, 2025. AFP/via Getty Images hide caption
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AFP/via Getty Images
People who fled the Zamzam camp line up for food rations in the makeshift encampment near Tawila on April 13, 2025. AFP/via Getty Images hide caption
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AFP/via Getty Images
Maryam holds the 7-month-old child she gave birth to inside a refugee camp in Gezira, Sudan, on Dec. 10, 2023. "I traveled from Mayo, in southern Khartoum, to the city of Wad Madani," she says. "The trip took three days on a karoo [a wooden cart pulled by a donkey], and I was with my six children and was five months pregnant at the time." Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
Al-Hawri internally displaced persons camp in Gedaref state on July 27, 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
A child is treated for malnutrition at Rifa's Hospital in Gezira state, Sudan, on Oct. 9, 2023. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
A destroyed car in Omdurman on Jan. 14, 2025. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
The interior of a destroyed bank building in Omdurman in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
Bodies were buried inside the house during the Rapid Support Forces' control of the area. After the army entered the area, the bodies were removed and buried in cemeteries in Omdurman in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
A member of the Sudanese Armed Forces searches for bodies in Omdurman in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
A skull found by the Sudanese Armed Forces in an area where the Rapid Support Forces were in control in Omdurman in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
A child pushes a tricycle as he returns home in Sudan's Omdurman Market in 2024. Faiz Abubakr hide caption
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Faiz Abubakr
