Sudan civil war: three years on – Revolutionary Communist Group

15 April 2023 marked three years since the Sudan civil war broke out between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and its paramilitary rapid support forces (RSF). An estimated 150,000 people have died. 12 million are still displaced, including 4.5 million who have fled the country. Belated attempts by the imperialists, particularly Britain and the US, to end the war on their terms have failed, and the war appears to be intensifying as violence spreads to wider regions especially to West Sudan (Darfur) and central and southern Sudan (Kordofan).

Parallel governments

The RSF finds its roots in the Janjaweed, an Arab supremacist militia group used to suppress the ‘rebels’ in Darfur in 2003-2005 who President Bashir accused of being British-backed. The RSF was set up by the Sudanese government in 2013 to counter any coup attempts from the army and leftover Janjaweed elements. The EU, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt and the UAE have funded the RSF since 2014, using them as mercenaries in the civil wars in Yemen and Libya. This gave the RSF financial independence from the increasingly fragile Sudanese state, weakened by two decades of US sanctions (1997-2017), and the secession of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011, a break-up orchestrated by Britain and the US.

In April 2019, the SAF and RSF launched a coup that removed President Bashir. The intention was to thwart a mass protest movement (2018-2019) that was close to toppling the government. Over 100 protesters were massacred by the SAF and RSF during a protest in Khartoum on 3 June 2019 demanding civilian rule. Over 40 bodies were recovered from the River Nile, and 70 people were raped by the RSF. This was followed by another coup in October 2021 which removed EU civilian puppet Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. In March 2023, the SAF insisted the RSF be integrated into the army within two years. The RSF refused, leading to the outbreak of civil war.

Sudan is now governed by two military authorities: the SAF’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, based in Port Sudan; and the RSF’s Sudan Founding Alliance based in Nyala in Darfur. Both have been accused of indiscriminate and systematic attacks on civilian populations. Sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion, and the targeting of specific ethnic groups are commonplace. The UN Human Rights Council confirmed in a February 2026 report that the RSF carried out a coordinated campaign of destruction ‘in and around El-Fasher [capital of North Darfur state], during its takeover of the city on or around 26 and 27 October 2025…crimes [that] followed an 18-month siege during which the RSF deliberately imposed conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of non-Arab communities…the hallmarks of which point to genocide’. Over 6,000 people were killed.

This genocidal attack followed the withdrawal of the SAF from El-Fasher. The SAF has also engaged in

• 35 airstrikes on crowded civilian markets;
• attacks on civilian infrastructure—such as the El Daein Teaching Hospital in east Darfur which killed 64 people, including 13 children;
• 146 attacks on villages between October 2024 and May 2025, including mass killings and the hiding of victims in mass graves;
• arbitrary detention, sexual torture, and deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid.

While the RSF made strategic gains early in the war, in 2025 the SAF retook the capital Khartoum, giving it the upper hand. The RSF controls most of Darfur and west Kordofan, whilst the SAF controls eastern and northern parts of Sudan. The RSF and SAF have very little support amongst the local population, forcing them to use foreign mercenaries, who make up almost 85% of the fighting forces. The mercenaries are from Ukraine, Colombia, Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Central African Republic.

Imperialist plunder

Western imperialist countries and their regional proxies are fuelling the war. The RSF is supported by the UAE, a client state of the US and Britain. Sophisticated weapons, drones and mercenaries are funnelled into the RSF via neighbouring countries. The SAF is supported by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Russia. The UAE and the Ethiopian army have set up a military base in Ethiopia to train RSF fighters and mercenaries. Satellite imagery collected by Yale’s School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab revealed a second military base in Ethiopia also connected to UAE supply lines, used to facilitate RSF drone attacks, and a first ground invasion in January 2026.

The UAE wants access to Sudan and Ethiopia’s gold resources. Gold made up over 95% of the value of Ethiopia’s mineral exports in 2023-24. But official exports are dropping as Ethiopia gold is smuggled through Sudan, Eritrea, and Kenya to the UAE. The UAE imported 29 tonnes of gold directly from Sudan in 2024, up from 17 tonnes in 2023, in addition to major volumes smuggled through Egypt, Chad, and Libya. Switzerland then imports this gold, with its true origin ‘unknown’. Between January and September 2025, Switzerland imported 316 tonnes of gold worth £25.6 bn from the UAE, over double the annual average since 2015. All major Swiss refineries are members of the London Bullion Market Association. The UAE is the top destination for smuggled gold, and Sudan the gateway to African gold. Between 2012 and 2022, 2,569 metric tonnes of undeclared gold from Africa, worth $115 billion, were smuggled to the UAE.

The SAF’s major backer is Saudi Arabia, which sees Sudan as vital for Red Sea security, and a source of fertile agricultural land to protect its food security. As such, control of Sudan’s northern and eastern corridors, which includes the strategically-placed Port Sudan (SAF headquarters) near the oil chokepoint Bab-el-Mandeb, and large agricultural lands, are very important to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The SAF also controls significant gold resources smuggled out through Egypt, to the UAE and Switzerland. Swiss gold imports from Egypt more than doubled between 2023 and 2025.

Imperialist solutions

Despite their frequent calls for ‘peaceful settlement’ and ‘humanitarian aid corridors’ to civilians, it is no wonder that the imperialists have taken no action against Switzerland, Egypt or the UAE for looting Sudan’s resources. The SAF has insisted that Sudan’s territorial integrity be respected, that no solutions are imposed on it by external forces, and that the RSF withdraw from occupied areas and disarm before any negotiations take place. For its part, RSF has accepted unconditional negotiations with the SAF, which would confer an elusive legitimacy on them, impossible now given the official genocide accusations. The imperialists are clearly trying to impose a ‘solution’ in which the RSF is reintegrated into the Sudanese security establishment, followed by imperialist-endorsed ‘elections’. The war crime records of both governments make these plans doomed to failure. The imperialists need to be held to account for their enabling of the SAF and RSF criminals, who offer no solutions for the people of Sudan.