On October 2, 2025, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced they had eliminated a group of foreign fighters—among them Colombians and Ukrainians—who had been fighting alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the embattled city of El Fasher, Darfur. According to the SAF’s 6th Infantry Division, the operation unfolded in Al-Karama Square, where the foreign mercenaries attempted to seize high-rise residential buildings. Among those killed, SAF claimed, were drone engineers and snipers. Military intelligence further alleged that these foreign operatives had deployed Ukrainian-made drones for reconnaissance and strike missions against army positions.
El Fasher now stands as one of the last major cities in Darfur not under RSF control, and the stakes could hardly be higher. The city is under siege, with civilians trapped, aid supplies blocked, and thousands in displacement shelters desperately needing food and medicine. The SAF’s claims of foreign fighters and drone warfare have not been independently verified, and neither the RSF nor the foreign governments mentioned have issued immediate responses. Yet, the episode is a striking illustration of how Sudan’s war has evolved—from a bitter internal feud to a conflict with far-reaching international ramifications.
As reported by The Globe and Mail, the war in Sudan, now into its third year, has become one of the world’s deadliest and most catastrophic humanitarian crises. The fighting began on April 15, 2023, after a tense standoff between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Both men were once allies, having risen to power under former dictator Omar al-Bashir and even collaborating to topple him in 2019. Their uneasy partnership unraveled over disputes about integrating the RSF into the military and who would ultimately control Sudan’s armed forces.
What started as a power struggle between two generals has since spiraled into a brutal war with enormous costs. According to the United Nations and various humanitarian groups, Sudan is now home to the world’s worst hunger crisis. As of September 2025, 25 million Sudanese people—over half the population—need food aid. Famine is already underway in parts of the country, and aid agencies are struggling to reach those most in need. The conflict has also produced the largest displacement crisis globally, with 12 million people forced to flee their homes. Of these, more than 4 million have crossed into neighboring countries, including Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, and Libya, placing immense strain on already fragile states.
The violence has spread across Sudan, engulfing regions such as Darfur, Kordofan, Gezira, Khartoum, and Omdurman. The city of El Fasher, in particular, has become a focal point of the fighting. Since 2024, the RSF has laid siege to El Fasher, cutting off humanitarian supplies and bombarding the city with artillery and drone strikes. Thousands have died during the RSF’s captures of refugee camps in Darfur, including the sprawling Zamzam camp, home to around half a million people. The siege of El Fasher has only intensified the suffering, with hunger, disease, and violence becoming daily realities for those trapped inside.
Estimates of the human toll are staggering. Early in 2024, U.S. envoy Tom Perriello told Congress that as many as 150,000 people may have been killed in Sudan by that point. Since then, the death toll has continued to climb. In November 2024, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that more than 61,000 people had died in Khartoum alone in the first 14 months of the war, including 26,000 killed by violence. The true number is likely much higher, as most deaths go unrecorded.
The suffering is not limited to those killed or displaced. Sexual violence and abductions have become widespread, with the UN documenting hundreds of cases involving women and girls—many of whom were raped or kept in slave-like conditions. Most of these atrocities have been attributed to RSF fighters or their allied militias. The collapse of Sudan’s health system has compounded the crisis: only 20 to 30 percent of hospitals and clinics remain functional, and many have been looted or destroyed. Meanwhile, the education system is in tatters, with an estimated 19 million children forced out of school since the war began.
Much of the violence and suffering in Darfur echoes atrocities from two decades ago, when the Janjaweed militia—precursor to the RSF—was accused of genocide and other war crimes. General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has deep roots in Darfur and has leveraged gold-mining interests to bolster his influence and fund the RSF’s expansion. The RSF, officially created in 2013, now boasts an estimated 100,000 fighters and is widely reported to receive sophisticated weaponry and support from the United Arab Emirates, though the UAE denies these allegations. The SAF, meanwhile, is believed to have backing from Iran, Egypt, and Russia.
The involvement of foreign fighters and mercenaries has further complicated the war. According to Reuters and The Globe and Mail, the RSF has recruited soldiers from Colombia and several African countries, using supply routes through Libya. The Sudanese military’s recent claims about Colombian and Ukrainian fighters in El Fasher underscore the extent to which outside actors are now shaping the conflict. As Rosemary DiCarlo, a senior UN official, told the Security Council, the warring parties’ ability to sustain combat “is in no small part thanks to the support they receive from outside of Sudan.”
Efforts to broker peace have so far failed. Multiple ceasefire attempts—led by the UN, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and others—have collapsed. A recent U.S.-backed initiative in September 2025, which proposed a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a transition to civilian rule, was rejected by Sudan’s official government and ignored by the RSF. The international community has struggled to respond effectively. While countries like Canada and the U.S. have imposed sanctions and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, funding has fallen short of the enormous needs. Aid groups warn that Sudan remains one of the world’s most dangerous places to deliver humanitarian relief, with dozens of workers killed and warehouses looted.
The Sudanese army has called on the UN Security Council to hold RSF leaders accountable for alleged war crimes and breaches of humanitarian norms. Yet, the Security Council remains divided, unable to agree on expanding the arms embargo from Darfur to the entire country. Meanwhile, the suffering continues, with hundreds of thousands of people in El Fasher and elsewhere facing starvation, disease, and violence on a daily basis.
As the battle for El Fasher rages and foreign fighters are drawn deeper into the conflict, Sudan’s war seems poised to drag on, with devastating consequences for millions. The world watches, but for those inside Sudan, hope remains a scarce commodity.
