The ongoing war in Sudan is a vicious and complex conflict.
After a military coup ended a fledgling civilian government in 2021, the two forces who launched it – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – eventually turned on each other, kicking off an all-out war in April 2023.
By July last year, this was the territory controlled by each side, when the RSF were at the peak of their territorial control.
They had seized control of Singa in Sennar State in the east, encroaching on the Sudanese army’s territory. And they continued to make important gains in eastern Sudan, taking one city after another.
The SAF looked to be in a losing position.
But from October 2024, that started to change. The SAF recaptured the strategically significant Jebel Moya Mountain range in the east, and has continued to retake areas around the capital of Khartoum.
This is the picture today. The SAF has captured Soba town, east of the capital.
And now both sides are battling for ground around Khartoum, with the army saying it is making gains in the heart of the capital, and also in the strategic city of el-Obeid to the West.
A soldier near the front in Khartoum, Sudan
Maps tracking each side’s areas of control have been collated using open-source techniques, social media videos, and reports from local media. As the RSF and SAF’s territories have expanded and shrunk, they have brought untold death and misery for the civilians caught in between them.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data group (ACLED), which specialises in conflict data collection, has recorded at least 28,000 reported deaths from the conflict. The actual figure is likely to be much higher. Academics have estimated the true toll may be 150,000 dead in less than two years of war.
The wreckage of a vehicle in Kafouri, Sudan
And those left alive have scrambled to flee the shifting battle lines, as the country faces the largest and fastest displacement crisis in the world.
The latest UN data suggests that 12.8 million people have been displaced, more than a fifth of Sudan’s population. Five million of those displaced are children, according to UNICEF.
Some 8.9 million people have been displaced inside Sudan, with the majority residing in refugee camps.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled into neighbouring countries or returned home in adverse circumstances – notably to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda.
This is a war that is spilling across borders, but the brunt of it is being borne by the Sudanese people, who are praying for an end to the violence.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
