"We were taken to an open field [...]. The first man raped me twice; the second, once, and the third, four more times. The fourth also raped me once". "All the way, the militiamen asked the women to follow them and insisted when we refused. It happened everywhere. In the woods: two militiamen there, three more after a while. They were everywhere. Everything happened in broad daylight".Testimonies as chilling as these are common in the Darfur region, in Sudan, where in a couple of weeks it will be three years since the country has been immersed in a devastating civil war.

“From now on, the Sahel’s resources should benefit Sahelians and partners who understand the paradigm shift in today’s diplomacy,” says Azise Sodore, head of the geography department at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The Sahel is the semi-desert belt between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudanese region to the south, stretching 5,000 kilometers between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. “The Sahel’s natural resources have made it the target of geopolitical and geostrategic plans,” Sodore says, noting the greed of those who want to exploit them.

According to the UN, the Sudanese civil war, along with the war in Gaza, the conflict that has generated the most serious humanitarian crisis recentlySince the start of the conflict in Sudan in April 2023, it is estimated that the death toll could exceed 150,000, and the number of refugees and displaced persons is approaching 15 million in a country with approximately 50 million inhabitants. The root of the conflict lies in a power struggle between two powerful generals, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese army, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. However, the war could not have lasted so long and caused so much suffering without the self-serving intervention of various regional and global powers, and especially the United Arab Emirates, the RSF's main ally.

Mass rapes. Roads littered with bodies. Summary executions. Torture. Robberies. Kidnappings. Extortion. This is the macabre list of atrocities recounted by survivors who have managed to flee the Sudanese city of Al Fashir in recent days. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has seized control of the city. who had been brutally besieging them for a year and a half.This town, the capital of the province of North Darfur, has gained a sad notoriety: the paramilitaries clashing with the Sudanese army Since April 2023, they have sown terror with extreme violence.

"The Sudanese city of Al Fashir, the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering, has descended into an even darker hell." This was the stark assessment of Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, during Thursday evening's session of the UN Security Council. The UN's executive body debated and condemned the atrocities and the "crimes" committed by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries during the capture of this city Just days ago, this included the killing of nearly 500 civilians at the Saudi Maternity Hospital. This capture and the massive violent repression that followed have forced more than 15,000 people to flee the city in two days and head towards Tawila, in western Sudan, where they are currently in makeshift camps.

After 17 months of a fierce siegeOn Monday, Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of Al Fashir, the capital of the Darfur region, and now control much of the south and west of the African country. Their entry into the city has been followed by numerous atrocities against the civilian population, according to the United Nations. Sudan has been the scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises since 2023. when a brutal civil war broke out between the national army and the FSR, a militia that was attached to the armed forces.

A "massive and devastating" landslide has killed more than 1,000 people living in Tarsin, a small village in western Sudan that has been completely buried, according to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, a rebel group that controls parts of the Darfur region in the west of the country.

In mid-March, while Sudan's main paramilitary group collapsed in the last positions they had been able to hold in the capital.In Khartoum, its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, declared that they would not give in and would expand the conflict. Days later, his brother, Abdelrahim Dagalo, who is increasingly acting as the group's de facto commander, issued a similar warning, threatening to extend the war to the north and east of the country, areas that until then had remained relatively isolated.

This was the title of one of the most powerful images in the exhibition. Resistance in Memory: Visions of Sudan, which I visited a few days ago at the Sura gallery, in the magnificent Balqís bookstore in Madrid. Looking at it, I was struck by a mixture of pain and recognition. April 15 marked two years since the start of the armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Far from being a civil war spontaneous, has been fueled by multiple external actors—among them, and most notably, the United Arab Emirates. The filing, on April 10, of a genocide case against the Emirates before the International Court of Justice by the Sudanese government marks a turning point. The text of the complaint denounces Abu Dhabi's direct involvement in military and logistical support to the SRF, including the supply of weapons, intelligence, and transportation.

On April 15, 2023, violence erupted in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan, which this Tuesday entered its third year of civil war with extremely remote prospects for peace in the short or medium term. Furthermore, the latest information coming from Darfur, in the west of the country, increases pessimism even further. Hundreds of people—more than 350 according to the regional government—have died since last Thursday, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed two displaced persons camps near the town of Al Fashir with great violence.

For the first time in almost two years of civil war, a khaki and brown military helicopter landed at the devastated airport in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on Wednesday. From inside, the country's president and head of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, emerged. After descending the three steps of the aircraft, he took two steps and knelt on the runway for a few seconds, while a general behind him raised his right fist with his index finger pointing to the sky.

Sudan's military has scored a major victory in its power struggle against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday, two years after the beginning of a civil war which has caused the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. The country's armed forces have announced that they have taken control of the presidential palace and the center of Khartoum, the capital, where the government buildings are located.

When almost two years have passed since the outbreak of violence in Sudan, immersed since April 2023 in a civil conflict between the army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the UN warns of the use of child rape as a weapon of war. UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, denounces in a report released this Tuesday More than 200 sexual assaults on children, including children as young as one year old. "Armed men rape and sexually assault children, including one-year-olds," the organization says.