War in Sudan: Humanitarian, fighting, control developments, August 2025

Sudan’s civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary has produced the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

Estimates suggested tens of thousands of people have died from combat and thousands more have perished from disease and hunger brought on by the war, now well into its third year.

There have been many significant military and political developments this month. Here are the key updates:

Fighting and military control

• The SAF is consolidating its control over the capital, Khartoum, which it took from the RSF in March. It also holds the central and eastern regions of Sudan, including its wartime capital of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
• The RSF controls most of the sprawling western region of Darfur and much of the Kordofan region to the south.
• The RSF continues to besiege North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, where the SAF has its last Darfur garrison. If el-Fasher falls, the RSF will rule over a stretch of land roughly the size of France in western Sudan.
• The RSF has escalated attacks on el-Fasher and on nearby displacement camps, including the Abu Shouk camp, where 190,000 people from around Darfur have sought shelter.
• It has also erected massive sand berms around el-Fasher from the north, west and east, effectively creating a “kill-box,” according to recent satellite imagery obtained by the Yale Humanitarian Research Hub.
• The RSF is working to expand its control in Kordofan by working with a new ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), headed by Abdelaziz al-Hilu. The two allied in February to counter the SAF on the battlefield.
• With the help of the SPLM-N, the RSF retains control over most of West and South Kordofan, giving them cross-border access to South Sudan.
• SAF controls the most strategic city in North Kordofan, el-Obeid, which the RSF is besieging. The SAF needs to hold onto el-Obeid to keep the RSF from threatening central Sudan.

Humanitarian crisis

• The RSF has trapped an estimated 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, in el-Fasher, turning the city into an “epicentre of child suffering”, according to UNICEF.
• Most are surviving on animal fodder known as ambaz – the residue of pressed oil seeds, such as peanuts, sesame, and sunflower – which they grind into a paste; however, even this is running low.
• About one-third of the children in Mellit, a city the RSF controls near el-Fasher, are severely malnourished, according to figures obtained by Relief International and shared with media. That is more than double the World Health Organization’s threshold for a malnutrition emergency.
• A cholera outbreak is compounding the humanitarian crisis across the vast region of Darfur, according to Adam Rojal, internally displaced people spokesperson in Darfur. On August 30, he said the water-borne disease killed nine people that day and infected a total of 9,143 people, with 382 deaths, since the epidemic first started in June 2025.
• Food convoys from the United Nations and other nongovernmental organisations rarely reach the neglected region of Darfur due to road closures and bureaucratic impediments. Human rights groups and local activists accuse both sides of weaponising food.
• The World Food Programme told media that it provides electronic cash assistance to vulnerable people in North Darfur, but no food convoys have reached the region for more than a year.
• A UN food convoy was hit by a drone strike in North Darfur on Friday, the second aid convoy in three months to be targeted. The RSF and SAF traded blame for the attack.
• There is a similar hunger emergency in South Kordofan due to an RSF siege on the cities of Dilling and Kadugli.

Diplomacy and political developments

• RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo was reportedly sworn in as president of the parallel “Peace government” on August 31 in South Darfur’s capital, Nyala. SAF hit the city with a drone strike on the same day.
• A secret meeting reportedly took place in Switzerland between SAF Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and a United States adviser in mid-August, ostensibly to discuss a plan to end the war, according to Sudan experts and media outlets. The US has not confirmed the talks.
• A week after the secret meeting, al-Burhan retired several senior military officers, some of whom reportedly belong to Sudan’s political Islamist movement, which ruled the country for 30 years with former President Omar al-Bashir at the helm. Experts believe al-Burhan is under external pressure to dilute the influence of prominent figures tied to the al-Bashir government.