Foreign Perspective

Rethinking Order. Reframing Power

Sudan’s War of Attrition: Hunger, Power, and the Collapse of Civilian Protection

An examination of power disparities, the use of hunger as a weapon, and the failure of the international community to assist the Sudanese people.

Foreign Perspective // March 2026 // by Simon

Sudan is facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises in 2026. The ongoing Sudan conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has turned entire cities into battle zones, leaving millions of civilians trapped in a state of fear, hunger, and displacement. Unlike typical civil wars, this conflict deliberately targets civilian populations, using hunger as a weapon to control communities and suppress resistance.

Bild: AI-generated

Food shortages, destroyed markets, and blocked humanitarian aid have created a humanitarian catastrophe across Khartoum, Darfur, and other regions. Meanwhile, regional powers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE fuel the conflict, turning Sudan into a proxy battlefield while international mediation fails to secure lasting peace.

Understanding this war is critical: it is not simply a power struggle but a calculated system where civilian suffering is part of the strategy, reinforced by modern military technology like drones and the control of vital resources. This article explains why the Sudan conflict is different from other civil wars, what drives it, and how its effects ripple across the region.

From Militias to Parallel Armies: How Sudan Reached the 2023 Conflict

Sudan’s current conflict is the outcome of a long process in which violence was deliberately outsourced.

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir Foto: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Released

Under former president Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese state relied on militias to suppress rebellion in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. Rather than dismantling these forces after Bashir’s fall in 2019, Sudan’s transitional arrangements institutionalized them.

Demonstration in Sudan 2019 Source: Voice of America

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), evolved from the Janjaweed militias into a heavily armed, economically autonomous force. At the same time, the SAF preserved its dominance over formal state institutions while resisting meaningful civilian oversight.

Left: Hemedti, Leader of the RSF. Right: Al-Burhan, Leader of the SAF. Sources: Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0. Collage: own work.

The uneasy coexistence between these two armed centers of power collapsed on 15 April 2023, when fighting broke out in Khartoum. Within days, the capital became a battlefield. Civilian neighborhoods turned into frontlines. Hospitals, water infrastructure, and food supply routes were deliberately targeted or occupied.

This was not a breakdown of command. It was a choice.

Picture: AI-generated

The Warring Parties

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)

The SAF presents itself as the guardian of Sudanese statehood. It controls formal institutions, air power, and diplomatic recognition. Yet its strategy since the outbreak of war has prioritized military survival over civilian protection.

Airstrikes in densely populated areas, prolonged sieges, and the obstruction of humanitarian access have become routine. Early in the conflict, the SAF’s control of Sudan’s air force—including Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones—gave it a tactical advantage.

These drones, classified as MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) systems, can remain airborne for over 24 hours and carry air-to-ground munitions. Their use marked a shift toward remote warfare, allowing strikes deep into urban areas without risking ground forces.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF)

The RSF operates differently—but with equally devastating consequences.

Financially independent through control of gold mining, smuggling routes, and external backing, the RSF relies on territorial domination rather than institutional legitimacy. It has used looting, sexual violence, ethnic targeting, and mass displacement as instruments of war, particularly in Darfur.

Over time, the RSF also acquired MALE-class drones, notably the Chinese FH-95, enabling reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and precision strikes.

Both sides now possess the ability to project force deep behind enemy lines—turning civilian life itself into a permanent state of insecurity.

Hunger as a Weapon of War

Sudan’s famine is not the consequence of failed harvests alone. It is the product of systematic obstruction.

  • Markets have been destroyed or occupied
  • Agricultural regions cut off from transport routes
  • Humanitarian convoys blocked, taxed, or attacked
  • Aid politicised by both warring parties

In Darfur, entire communities have been starved into submission. In Khartoum, neighborhoods were isolated for months without access to food or clean water.

This strategy follows a grim logic:
A hungry population cannot resist. A starving society cannot organize.

Water, Security, and Civilian Survival

Modern conflicts increasingly revolve around access to resources—and water is central among them.

Urban warfare in Sudan has damaged pumping stations, wells, and water treatment facilities. Control over water access has become a tool of coercion, especially in poorer districts.

Water insecurity exacerbates disease, displacement, and food shortages. It also deepens social fragmentation, as communities compete for survival rather than collective resilience.

Seen through this lens, Sudan’s war is not only military—it is ecological and infrastructural.

Regional Powers and a War That Pays

Sudan’s conflict cannot be understood without its regional context.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates once coordinated closely across the Red Sea. Today, their rivalry increasingly plays out through proxies.

  • Saudi Arabia supports the SAF and Sudan’s central institutions
  • The UAE has backed the RSF, particularly through economic and logistical networks tied to gold and trade routes

This divergence reflects a broader fracture in Gulf geopolitics, extending from Yemen to the Horn of Africa.

For both states, Sudan is not merely a humanitarian crisis—it is a strategic arena.

As long as the costs of war are borne primarily by Sudanese civilians, external pressure for peace remains limited.

Why International Mediation Keeps Failing

Anthony Blinken at QUAD meeting Foto: Department of State, Public Domain

Numerous ceasefires have been announced. None have held.

Diplomatic efforts focus narrowly on stopping fighting—without addressing the economic incentives, external sponsorship, and war economies sustaining the conflict.

Meanwhile:

  • Sanctions remain limited
  • Accountability mechanisms weak
  • Humanitarian access negotiable rather than guaranteed

The result is a managed catastrophe, not a forgotten one.

What This War Means Beyond Sudan

Sudan sits at a strategic crossroads: between the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea. Instability here ripples outward.

  • Refugee flows strain neighbouring states
  • Food price shocks affect regional markets
  • Armed groups exploit lawless zones

Ignoring Sudan is not neutrality. It is complicity through neglect.

Conclusion: A War Designed to Last

Sudan’s war is not chaotic. It is structured.
It is sustained by resources, technology, and geopolitical calculation.

The central tragedy is not only that civilians suffer but also that their suffering is functional to the logic of the war.

Ending it will require more than ceasefires. It demands confronting the systems that make starvation, displacement, and destruction profitable.

Until then, Sudan’s civilians remain trapped—not between two armies, but within a global order that tolerates their suffering.

Sources

Analysis and Reports

Journals und international Analysis

News reports

Security and humanitarian reports

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