On Tuesday, December 9, 2025, tragedy struck eastern Sudan as a military transport aircraft crashed while attempting to land at the Osman Digna airbase in Port Sudan. According to AFP, the Ilyushin Il-76 went down due to a technical malfunction during its landing approach, killing all crew members on board. The loss comes at a time when Sudan is already reeling from a year and a half of relentless conflict, surging displacement, and a humanitarian crisis that shows no sign of abating.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), aligned with the country's embattled government, have not released the exact number of crew members lost in the crash. The last major incident at the airbase had occurred just months earlier, in May, when drone strikes targeted multiple sites across Port Sudan, including the airfield itself, as reported by Al Jazeera. The city and its surrounding region have become increasingly volatile as the conflict between SAF and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies and spreads.
Just a day before the crash, on December 8, the RSF seized control of the Heglig oilfield in West Kordofan province, Sudan's largest and most critical oil facility. The Sudan Tribune detailed how SAF abandoned their positions, allowing the RSF to take over a site that processes between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily for both Sudan and neighboring South Sudan. The pipeline from Heglig to Port Sudan is a crucial artery for the country's economy, and the loss of the oilfield has delivered a significant blow to government revenue streams.
Military sources told Al Jazeera that the army was also withdrawing from Babnusa, a strategic gateway in West Kordofan that the RSF claimed to have captured in early December. The RSF's rapid gains across central Sudan now threaten to split the country in two, potentially isolating SAF-held territories and consolidating paramilitary control over a swath of land stretching from Chad to Sudan's heartland. The United Nations has described the region, especially following the fall of el-Fasher last month, as a "crime scene."
The humanitarian consequences of this conflict are staggering. The United Nations reported that more than 41,000 people have been displaced in Sudan over the past month alone due to paramilitary attacks, with over 700 forced to flee in a single day. According to Mission Network News, the RSF's advance eastward into the Kordofan region has created new waves of displacement. Survivors from el-Fasher, which fell to the RSF in October, are now moving into increasingly remote areas such as the Mara Mountains, making it ever more difficult for aid groups to reach them.
John, a gospel worker focused on Sudan, told Mission Network News, “They’re going east to Kordofan, and it’s creating a new displacement of people. We really need to pray. I don’t think that Sudan is on the radar; very, very few people that I talk to are even aware of how dire the situation is.”
Access routes into Darfur and Kordofan have become perilous or entirely blocked due to RSF control, ongoing fighting, and rampant looting of humanitarian supplies. Thousands of families are struggling to survive as their access to food, water, and medical care becomes ever more limited. The World Food Programme has issued dire warnings that 20 million people in Sudan now face acute food shortages, with six million teetering on the brink of starvation.
The violence unleashed by the RSF after its capture of el-Fasher has been particularly brutal. John described the aftermath: “Now the RSF, much like ISIS, is free within the city to do what it wants without having to fight a battle. And what they’re doing is ravaging the people. Rape of women is [common]; the numbers are unbelievable. And then the trafficking and selling of children has become one of the most horrible results of the RSF having control of El Fasher.”
The ongoing conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the SAF and the RSF, has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people, according to reports from Al Jazeera and the United Nations. The epicenter of the war has shifted repeatedly, but recent RSF advances in Kordofan have raised fears that the violence and humanitarian disaster will only deepen.
Amid the chaos, church planting teams and humanitarian workers have been driven out of places like el-Fasher but continue their efforts in refugee camps across three countries. As of December 2025, 28 teams remain active, offering trauma counseling and spiritual support to those who have lost everything. “We have 28 teams in 28 refugee camps in three countries, and they are sharing Christ. I have pictures of baptisms from refugee camps, so the Church is growing. People are coming to Christ,” John explained.
International efforts to stem the violence and its ripple effects have taken on new urgency. On the same day as the Port Sudan plane crash, the United States imposed sanctions on four Colombian nationals and four companies accused of recruiting military veterans to fight for the RSF. However, as Al Jazeera noted, the sanctions did not target Global Security Services Group, a company based in the United Arab Emirates that has been linked to the deployment of Colombian mercenaries to Sudan. The UAE has consistently denied any support for the RSF.
Also on Tuesday, December 9, the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down a landmark 20-year sentence to Ali Kushayb, a former leader of the Popular Defence Forces (also known as the Janjaweed) militia, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. This marks the first time the ICC has prosecuted crimes in Darfur—a region now, tragically, once again the site of mass atrocities as the RSF, which traces its origins to the Janjaweed, pushes deeper into western and central Sudan.
Ahmed Ibrahim, a former adviser to the Sudanese government, told Al Jazeera that the RSF’s seizure of Heglig was part of a broader effort to draw South Sudan into the conflict, where a fragile truce barely holds. Meanwhile, Javid Abdelmoneim, international president of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF), wrote for Al Jazeera: “The conflict dynamics under way seem to indicate that the excruciating plight of el-Fasher may not be the end of horrific violence, but rather a milestone in a catastrophic war that keeps crushing civilian lives, notably at this moment in the Kordofan region.”
Despite the darkness, some sources see glimmers of hope amid the suffering. “Desperation creates an openness to the Gospel. Pray that the people who were seeking wouldn’t become closed off,” John urged. “Pray that the Christians in these camps – the people who know God, who have peace, and yet are struggling with discouragement – would be reminded of the hope that they have, and they would be motivated by the Holy Spirit to share that.”
As Sudan’s war grinds on, the world’s attention remains fickle, and the stakes for millions could not be higher.