On 11 June, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized a strategic tri-border zone between Sudan, Libya, and Egypt, known as Jebel Uweinat. Declaring the area "liberated" from a small Sudanese army border garrison, the capture of remote Jebel Uweinat will provide the paramilitaries with further access to Libya's porous southern frontier and their ally, the Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, as well as Sudan's northern states. Amidst this flashpoint, which will allow the RSF to continue to funnel in weapons and supplies, the broader, destructive armed conflict remains intractable, with no credible political or peace process in sight.
This week, dozens of senior Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanders, Sudanese politicians aligned with the paramilitaries, and foreign officials gathered at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in central Nairobi. The widely publicised and controversial ceremony—backed by Kenya, Ethiopia, and the UAE—marks the launch of a "parallel government" intended to challenge the authority of the UN-recognised military administration currently based in Port Sudan.
No observer of the latest round of civil war in Sudan expected a quiet festive period. Millions of Sudanese civilians knew perfectly well that they would spend New Year's Eve on the run, in makeshift displacement camps or overcrowded homes away from the front lines. The comparatively lucky members of the Sudanese elite, able to take refuge in Nairobi, Cairo, one of the Gulf countries or further afield, saw 2024 change to 2025 in the knowledge of having lost family, friends, homes and much else back home in Sudan