4/17/2025 Sudan (International Christian Concern) — This week marked the second anniversary of the brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force. While both parties have been accused of extreme atrocities against Sudan’s civilian population, including violence against houses of worship and religious leaders, the RSF has faced particular scrutiny for its brutal tactics against defenseless civilian communities.

Despite its recent high-profile losses in the capital city of Khartoum, this week the RSF declared the creation of a parallel government in areas of its control, which are mostly in the country’s southern and western regions. The SAF mainly holds territory in the north and east of the country, now including Khartoum, and similarly claims governing authority over those areas.

This week’s declaration follows a lavish event earlier this year in Nairobi, Kenya, in which the RSF announced its intention to create a new government.

While both sides of the conflict have condemned the atrocities committed by the other, each has engaged in consistent violations of its own. Last week, the RSF stormed the Zamzam camp in El Fasher, the last major city in the Darfur region not under RSF control. The attack displaced about 400,000 refugees who had been sheltering in the camp, leaving it largely empty according to aid workers. At least nine relief workers were killed in the attack.

RSF attacks on civilians parallel those committed by an earlier iteration of the group during the Darfur Genocide.

In January, the United States declared that the RSF was again engaged in a genocide. “The R.S.F. and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis,” then Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, “and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”

The brutal fighting has killed more than 150,000 people since 2023 and displaced more than 8.7 million of Sudan’s 48 million residents, according to U.S. and U.N. estimates.

According to other reports, 165 churches have had to close since the war started in 2023. Some churches are used as bases for military operations in the war, with people sheltering there forced out or even killed to make way for soldiers. Members of the clergy have been targeted, with soldiers shooting or stabbing priests and others during their raids. The well-equipped SAF often bombs churches, indiscriminately injuring or killing those sheltering inside, including women and children.

Both sides of the conflict have been responsible for immense human suffering and have acted in ways that directly kill, harm, and displace civilians. Afraid of losing leverage or battlefield advantage, both sides have also blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching those in need.

Speaking to this issue, the White House last year called on both parties to “immediately allow unhindered humanitarian access to all areas of Sudan” and reverse their decisions to “delay and disrupt lifesaving humanitarian operations.”

However, recent freezes of U.S.-funded aid in Sudan have closed hundreds of aid distribution points, leaving tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians without food and medicine as famine conditions threaten the country and the fighting continues.

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