Three years after fighting first broke out between Sudan’s army and the rival Rapid Support Forces, the war shows no sign of slowing down. If anything, the last several weeks have brought some of the most significant escalation since the conflict began, with humanitarian consequences now touching nearly every region of the country.
Latest developments
The most urgent flashpoint right now is the central Sudanese city of El Obeid, where RSF units have tightened a siege and stepped up drone strikes against civilian infrastructure. UN agencies estimate that up to half a million people are boxed in by the fighting, with tens of thousands already forced from their homes in just the past two weeks. Analysts see the battle for El Obeid as a turning point, since control of the city would open a route deeper into government-held territory, one reason both sides have committed so many resources to the fight.
Elsewhere, reporting continues to document a war increasingly shaped by drones and long-range strikes rather than direct ground combat, a shift that has made it harder for civilians to find safe ground and for aid workers to predict where the next wave of displacement will come from.
Humanitarian impact
The numbers behind the war are difficult to fully absorb. Roughly 33.7 million people, close to two-thirds of Sudan’s population, are expected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026, up from around 30 million the year before. Food insecurity has become the norm rather than the exception: more than 61 percent of the population is now classified as acutely food insecure, and in the hardest-hit areas, families describe going days without a proper meal, sometimes resorting to boiling leaves or eating livestock feed.
Public health has collapsed alongside food security. Cholera, malaria, and dengue are spreading at the same time, straining a health system with few functioning hospitals left standing. More than 1,100 cholera cases and over 120 deaths have been recorded since the latest outbreak began, and aid groups warn the real total is almost certainly higher given how few areas remain reachable for monitoring.
Getting help in has become harder, too. Instability affecting shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed the flow of fuel and supplies into the region, adding fresh friction to an aid pipeline already stretched thin by insecurity, bureaucratic obstruction, and the sheer scale of need on the ground.
With no durable ceasefire in sight and both sides still betting on military rather than political solutions, humanitarian officials say the coming months are likely to bring further displacement and worsening conditions before things improve. PBS NewsHour’s recent coverage offers a useful rundown of how the war’s fourth year is intersecting with these broader supply disruptions, for readers who want more detail on how the pieces connect.