War in Sudan: Humanitarian, fighting, control developments, September 2025 | Sudan war

Civil warfare in Sudan between the SAF and the RSF has resisted proposals for its finish.

The civil warfare in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Fast Assist Forces (RSF) paramilitary is now effectively into its third 12 months and has created the world’s most severe humanitarian catastrophe.

Estimates counsel the dying toll is within the tens of hundreds from fight alone, whereas hundreds extra have died from illness and starvation introduced on by the warfare.

This month noticed a number of key navy updates, because the humanitarian state of affairs continues to deteriorate:

Combating and navy management

• Observers are awaiting the return of Sudan’s wartime authorities, which had relocated to Port Sudan, to the Khartoum capital area.
• The RSF controls a lot of the huge western area of Darfur, aside from North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, the place SAF has its final Darfur garrison. The paramilitary is besieging el-Fasher in hopes of controlling all of Darfur, erecting huge sand berms round it from the north, west and east, successfully making a “kill-box”, in accordance with satellite tv for pc imagery obtained by the Yale Humanitarian Analysis Hub.
• However analysts say the RSF is on the again foot and the SAF is making good points round el-Fasher, advancing from the north so far as Bakhit (150km, or 90 miles, from el-Fasher).
• On September 19, an RSF drone killed more than 70 people in el-Fasher, marking it one of many “bloodiest days within the metropolis because the RSF began its siege in Could final 12 months”, in accordance with Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum.
• RSF additionally controls a lot of Kordofan to the south, with the assistance of Abdelaziz al-Hilu’s Sudan Individuals’s Liberation Motion-North (SPLM-N), giving it cross-border entry to South Sudan.
• Nonetheless, SAF nonetheless controls el-Obeid, essentially the most strategic metropolis in North Kordofan, which it wants to carry to maintain the RSF from threatening central Sudan.
• SAF achieved a strategic victory in North Kordofan when it took Umm Sumeima, about 60km (37 miles) west of el-Obeid on September 26, and Bara, 62km (39 miles) north, on September 11, after months of fierce battles some analysts described as “Mad Max-like”.

Humanitarian disaster

• A landslide in early September reportedly killed greater than 1,000 folks in Tarasin within the Marrah Mountains in Central Darfur. An official from the Sudan Liberation Motion/Military (SLM/A) launched a video on September 4 saying 370 our bodies had been recovered and buried.
• Famine has taken maintain in locations like el-Fasher and the close by Zamzam displacement camp, the place the RSF has trapped an estimated 260,000 civilians, together with 130,000 kids.
• Based on the World Meals Programme, a complete of 24.6 million folks, about half of the inhabitants, are struggling acute meals shortages, whereas 637,000 face devastating ranges of starvation.
• Help convoys from the United Nations and nongovernmental organisations hardly ever attain Darfur as a consequence of street closures and bureaucratic impediments. Rights teams and activists accuse either side of weaponising meals.
• In the meantime, the Worldwide Committee for the Purple Cross (ICRC) mentioned Sudan is dealing with its worst cholera outbreak in years as a result of nation’s war-devastated infrastructure. In a single space of the capital, greater than 5,000 instances of malaria, typhoid and dengue fever, accompanied by dozens of deaths, have been reported previously month, Hiba Morgan reported on September 23.
• Sudanese refugees are additionally dying within the Mediterranean Sea as they attempt to escape the warfare, with at least 50 dying after a vessel carrying Sudanese refugees caught hearth within the Mediterranean Sea.

Diplomacy and political developments

• UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres mentioned on September 20 that “the events should return to the negotiating desk and discover a sustainable answer to the battle.”
• The European Union utilized restrictive measures towards two firms, Alkhaleej Financial institution and Purple Rock Mining Firm. Alkhaleej Financial institution is “owned by firms linked to relations of RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and performs a vital position in financing RSF operations”, the EU Council mentioned, whereas Purple Rock is “concerned in facilitating the manufacturing of weapons and autos for the SAF”.
• Restrictive measures had been additionally utilized to 2 people, SAF navy commander Abu Aqla Mohamed Kaikal, who defected to the RSF earlier than rejoining the SAF in 2024, and RSF navy area commander, Hussein Barsham, who the council mentioned led “operations which have resulted in mass atrocities, together with focused killings, ethnic violence, pressured displacement and violence towards civilians, notably in Darfur and different conflict-affected areas of Sudan”.
• Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the USA have introduced a proposal to end the war, which requires a three-month humanitarian truce adopted by a everlasting ceasefire, then a nine-month transitional interval whereby a broad-based civilian-led authorities can be granted energy.
• Till now, all proposals to finish the warfare have failed.