Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)

Force in Play

Controls central, eastern, and northern Sudan

Two of every five Sudanese now lack enough food. Three UN agencies said on May 15 that 19.5 million people across Sudan face crisis-level hunger after three years of war between the national army and a paramilitary force.

Updated 2 hours ago

Force in Play

Controls eastern Sudan and Khartoum; leads transitional government

The United Nations reopened its Khartoum headquarters on Thursday, nearly three years after staff fled Sudan's capital when civil war broke out in April 2023. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) recaptured Khartoum from the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in March 2025, and more than two million displaced people have since returned to a city with shattered infrastructure, limited electricity, and contaminated water. The reopening makes the UN the latest international body to resume operations, following the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) return in September 2025 and a Sudanese government relocation from Port Sudan in January 2026.

Updated Apr 9

Force in Play

Government military force; primary drone operator in Kordofan and White Nile strikes

Sudan's civil war has entered a new phase defined by drone strikes that hit markets, hospitals, and roads with near-daily frequency. On March 26, two strikes killed at least 28 civilians — 22 when a drone hit a parked oil truck at a market in Saraf Omra, North Darfur, igniting part of the market and killing an infant among the dead, and six more along a road in Kordofan. In the first two months of 2026 alone, monitors recorded 198 drone strikes by both sides, at least 52 of which caused civilian casualties, killing 478 people.

Updated Mar 26