Last Sunday, a video about the civil war in Sudan was released on social media. In the video, shared by a user named Brown, a woman is begging for her and her child's life. She was saying, "We are innocent, don't kill us, have mercy on us."

In the video, someone can be heard shouting threats and the adhan (Muslim prayer) can be heard in the background.

International media outlets have reported that the woman is a Christian and that she is a member of the Sudanese militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The media outlets have claimed that the women were shot dead first, after refusing her request. However, the full video is not available.

On Sunday, the RSF also shot dead patients and staff at the main hospital in the city of Al Faser. The World Health Organization and the Sudan Doctors Network have said that the extremist group, which entered the Saudi hospital after capturing the city, brutally killed more than 460 patients and staff.

A network monitoring Sudan's civil war posted on Facebook on Wednesday, claiming, "RSF brutally killed every person found inside a Saudi hospital on Sunday." World Health Organization Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, "The news that more than 460 people were killed in a Saudi hospital is shocking."

More than 40,000 killed in 2.5 years

According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Sudan's civil war in the last 2.5 years alone. More than 14 million have fled their homes.

RSF had been besieging the city of Al Faser, which is under the control of Sudanese government security forces, for the past 18 months. Not only medicine, but also food was not allowed into the city. As a result, more than 1.2 million citizens there were in the grip of starvation.

According to the United Nations and human rights organizations, the situation has reached such a point that people, unable to eat, first started eating domestic animals, and then started eating the fodder given to those animals. As the situation worsened, they were forced to eat tree bark to save their lives. Sudan Doctors Network and other Sudanese medical and rights groups have claimed that the RSF is committing ‘mass murder’.

What is the cause of the civil war?

Sudan has a long history of civil war. According to ‘Global Conflict’, the current situation is a power struggle that has been going on for the past 3 years. The two factions of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, are in a deadly power struggle. The number of deaths has been made public differently.

The current massacre is linked to the change of power in 2019. At that time, dictator Omar al-Bashir was removed from power. After Bashir's fall, a power-sharing agreement was reached between SAF General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and RSF General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedati). But the agreement was broken in April 2023.

The RSF evolved from tribal militias. It is supported by the UAE. The RSF has been providing gold from Sudan to the UAE, and the UAE has been providing the necessary weapons. The power-sharing agreement did not materialize after a dispute over the RSF's merger with the SAF. The two factions launched attacks on each other in Khartoum. This led to a war throughout the country.

Ethnic violence

The majority of those killed in Sudan's civil war are non-Muslims and non-Arabs. A report by The Guardian claims that non-Arabs are among the dead. In the report, experts warned that the RSF’s capture of Al Fasr would be like its capture of Jenin, the capital of West Darfur, in 2023. At that time, the extremist group had killed about 15,000 people. Most of them were non-Arabs and Christians.

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed Arab militia. It was accused of carrying out a massacre of African ethnic groups in Darfur in 2003 on the orders of former President Omar al-Bashir. According to the ‘Global Conflict Tracker’, about 300,000 displaced Sudanese have taken refuge in refugee camps in volatile areas of Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

According to the United Nations, more than 30 million people in Sudan are in need of humanitarian assistance. The UN has warned that worsening food security risks are leading to the ‘world’s largest hunger crisis’.

Foreign powers have also been blamed for Sudan's latest conflict. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the power struggle is reminiscent of Sudan's second civil war of 1983-2005. In which two million people were killed. Foreign intervention has further complicated the war. According to the BBC, the lack of trust between the SAF and the RSF is pushing the country towards division, trampling on democracy.

Massacres seen even from satellite

Sudan's civil war has given rise to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Satellite images from October 27 show blood and bodies on the streets of Sudan. The images are from the town of Al Faser in North Darfur. The images reveal the atrocities and horrific massacres committed against civilians there after the RSF took over.

A report by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health claims that the figures in the images are of human bodies. The Yale HRL report says that the satellite images are of Daraja Oula, just 250 meters from the Al-Safiya Mosque. This is the same location where 78 people were killed in an RSF drone strike last September.

The report, citing experts and analysts, says that at least five examples of “changes in the color of the red soil” have been seen in the satellite images. All of these are consistent with objects measuring 1.3 to 2 meters. Which is about the size of an average human body. These features are not present in previous images of the scene. The images, which were taken after the RSF took over, claim that there was a large-scale massacre in the area, the report claims.

The SAF's 6th Division Headquarters and 157th Artillery Brigade are also visible in these photos. It is claimed that RSF vehicles and T-55 tanks deployed on October 27 are also clearly visible in the photo. Social media and reports from several organizations also show videos of civilians being shot and killed while trying to flee. Where tanks are firing from behind at people fleeing and people running are falling.

Brutality against minorities

Sudan has a population of around 45 million. About 91 to 97 percent of them are Muslims. Sunni Muslims are the majority. The remaining 3 percent are Christians. The most persecuted minority there during the civil war is the Muslim minority. International human rights organizations claim that they are being killed because of their different religious beliefs.

Several incidents of church burning, forced conversions and the killing of Christian leaders have been reported in the past year. In January 2024, a Christian cleric, Karbino Bla, was shot dead after setting fire to a church in the town of Madani in Al-Jazeera province. Similarly, on March 18, a Christian citizen was imprisoned without evidence on charges of being a supporter of the RSF.

International Christian Concern claims that Christians are being attacked by both government armed forces and the RSF. According to one of its reports, dozens of Christians have been imprisoned so far in 2025 for simply attending religious meetings. Concern claims that women are being raped, imprisoned and shot dead in front of children and men in the Darfur region after refusing to convert.

In 2020, Sudan's interim government made some improvements in the direction of religious freedom. The ‘Apostasy Law’ was repealed. But five years later, the situation has worsened. The power struggle between the RSF and the SAF has destroyed the legal system. Religious identities other than Islam are considered a crime in many areas. Locals say that those who do not accept Islam are being deprived of government facilities, rations and shelter.

Lucy Thomas, 34, from the northern region of Khartoum, says, ‘Our church has been closed. If we gather for prayer, they call us spies and take us away. We are forced to pray secretly at home.’

The international community is silent.

The United Nations and powerful countries have been holding various discussions for peace on the issues of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza war. But analysts say that the world has not been able to openly debate this tragic and barbaric war in human history.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the mass deportations and starvation in Sudan, but has not yet taken any practical steps to intervene. The European Union and the African Union have also expressed deep concern. But no international legal action has been taken against such a massacre.

Expectation of justice

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating war crimes in the Darfur region since 2002. Warrants have also been issued against several senior Sudanese leaders. But the justice process is moving very slowly in the current situation. Volker Turk, the special representative of the UN Human Rights Commission, said in a recent statement, “Serious human rights violations, including killings, persecution and forced conversions on the basis of religious belief, are taking place in Sudan.” But access to the justice system has become almost impossible in the current situation. According to ICC officials, gathering evidence, protecting witnesses and arresting the accused have become the biggest challenges.