Sudan conflict: what it would take to end the war

Sudan’s army has announced the recapture of a strategic highway connecting the capital, Khartoum, to the central city of El-Obeid, marking a significant development in a conflict that has destabilised the country and the wider region. The road is one of several vital arteries that have changed hands repeatedly since fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.

A long and fragmented war

The conflict has fractured Sudan along military, ethnic, and geographic lines. While the army has consolidated its hold on parts of the Nile corridor and the north, the RSF retains influence across vast stretches of Darfur and parts of Kordofan. Control of major roads has shifted between the two sides as each has sought to cut off the other’s supply lines and reinforce its positions.

Analysts say the retaking of the Khartoum–El-Obeid highway, if confirmed, would ease army logistics in central Sudan and complicate RSF movements. Yet territorial gains on a single road are unlikely to translate into a decisive end to the fighting, given the scale of the rival forces and the patchwork nature of the battlefronts.

A humanitarian catastrophe in the background

Beyond the military map, Sudan is facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies. Millions of people have been displaced, both within the country and across its borders into neighbouring Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt. Famine warnings have been issued in several regions, and access for aid agencies remains heavily restricted in areas controlled by either side.

What a path to peace might require

Diplomats and observers broadly agree that ending the war will demand more than battlefield progress. A negotiated settlement would need to address the political dispute that triggered the fighting, the integration or demobilisation of paramilitary forces, and guarantees for civilians in regions scarred by ethnically targeted violence. International mediation efforts, led in part by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the African Union, have so far failed to produce a lasting ceasefire.

For many Sudanese, the immediate priority is less about who controls a highway than about restoring electricity, food supplies, and basic services in cities devastated by months of combat. Until those daily realities improve, the political questions of who governs Sudan and how will remain unresolved.

Source: Al Jazeera — read the original report.