Sudanese Armed Forces initiates new offensive as Sudan’s civil war continues to escalate
Experts predict the death toll in Sudan could be as high as 150,000 since the start of the war.
On September 26, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched a major offensive in Sudan’s capital—Khartoum—during the country’s 17-month-long civil war.
The conflict, which has created one of the most significant humanitarian crises today, shows no sign of stopping despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire deal.
On September 26, the SAF pummeled positions of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum with artillery and airstrikes in an attempt to gain back the city.
The operation, which military sources say was in the works for months, was the SAF’s first major attempt in months to regain lost territory. The operation resulted in the taking of three key bridges and the redeployment of RSF troops to Khartoum.
According to the United Nations (UN), more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured since the start of the war, while some analysts predict the death toll could be as high as 150,000 for reasons such as famine.
In his address to the UN General Assembly’s annual debate on September 26, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, the SAF’s head and de facto ruler of Sudan, said the RSF should be considered a terrorist group and even referred to their actions as “crimes, violations, and atrocities,” against Sudanese people and the Sudanese state.
Al-Burhan also called for the UN to fulfill its responsibility “to protect developing countries in the face of the efforts by some other States,” in a reference which most likely pointed to, among other players, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—which has been accused of providing the RSF arms and even troops and support for the group’s public relations. According to the Middle East Eye, the UAE denies supplying weapons or ammunition to any parties involved in the Sudan war.
In a meeting with al-Burhan in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shared “deep concern about the escalation of the conflict in the Sudan, which continues to have a devastating impact on the Sudanese civilians.”
The nation’s civil war has led to Sudan experiencing the world’s largest hunger crisis, with nearly 26 million people, over half the population, facing hunger.
The crisis has led to devastating outcomes, including approximately five million breastfeeding and pregnant women and children being malnourished.
In the town of Tawila, which is located in the country’s North Darfur state, it has been reported that at least 10 children die of hunger daily.
Since 2023, over 10 million people, half are children, have been displaced, with two million crossing into neighbouring countries.
A May 2024 report from Human Rights Watch documented the targeting of Massalit and non-Arab communities by the RSF and allied militias in Sudan’s West Darfur state in what is being called ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The violence included massacres during which the RSF opened fire on civilian convoys on multiple occasions and committed various serious human rights abuses.
Additionally, a report from the UN’s Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has documented attacks by both the SAF and RSF on civilians through “forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment.”
The civil war has left over 17 million children without access to an official education and seen over 110 schools and hospitals being attacked, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund Representative Sheldon Yett.
Additionally, a CNN investigation earlier this year discovered that the RSF forcibly recruited 700 men and 65 children over three months in the Jazira state, coercing them by withholding food and using torture and execution.
Sudan also experienced massive cholera outbreaks, killing over 430 people in the last month and infecting nearly 14,000. Due to the war, getting treatment has become increasingly difficult in the affected areas.
News Editor (Volume 51); Associate News Editor (Volume 50) — Samuel is a second-year student at UTM studying Politics and English. He previously worked with The Medium as an Associate News Editor and currently serves as the publication’s News Editor. Samuel is passionate about employing the power of writing to enhance our student community and hopes to help nurture a bright future for The Medium this year. In his spare time, Samuel can be found working out, creating music on the piano and drums, or exploring nature.