One thousand days of relentless warfare have plunged Sudan into a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, leaving nearly 70% of its population – some 30 million people – in desperate need of assistance.
A Capital in Ruins: The Fall of Al Fashir
The brutality of the conflict is starkly illustrated by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) capture of North Darfur's capital, Al Fashir, in late October 2025. Exclusive footage obtained secretly for Sky News reveals a city utterly shattered.
Once a historic capital, Al Fashir now stands as a hollow shell. Its streets are deserted, and market squares are littered with the twisted wreckage of war. Buildings, half-standing, are scarred by bullet holes and bomb blasts.
Civilians who risked returning to search for belongings or missing relatives have dismissed RSF propaganda videos of cheering crowds as fiction. They describe a barren, abandoned city, haunted by the massacres that accompanied its takeover.
Foreign Arms and a Flooded Battlespace
The war, fought between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for territorial control, has been intensified by a massive influx of foreign weaponry. Analysts suspect the vast Sudanese warscape is being used to battle-test new arms.
"By early November 2025, weapons produced in 2025 were being deployed inside Sudan," states Faisal Al-Sheikh, an open-source investigator. Evidence points to a sophisticated supply chain.
Sky News' Data and Forensics team has analysed footage showing RSF use of advanced equipment, including Chinese-produced AH-4 Howitzers imported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2019. A distinctive Panthera T2 armoured vehicle, produced by a UAE-based company, was also identified in videos from Al Fashir and later in West Kordofan.
Emaddedin Badi of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) states supply lines are supported by the UAE via networks in Libya or Chad, contravening multiple arms embargoes.
The UAE categorically denies backing either side, asserting it operates a robust export control regime. It did not respond to specific queries about the Panthera T2 vehicles.
A Doctor's Harrowing Testimony from the Front Line
The human cost is immeasurable. Among hundreds held for ransom by the RSF were doctors, journalists, and politicians. One doctor, using the pseudonym Fatima for safety, described being assaulted and detained.
"I saw five corpses on the street in our neighbourhood," the 28-year-old said. She was later forced to work in the sole remaining hospital, a place of horror where wounded people had maggots in infected wounds due to a complete lack of healthcare capacity.
She described the RSF's assault involving C-5s, multiple drone types, tanks, and Howitzers. The so-called medical treatment shown in propaganda videos was, she said, "just for show."
The conflict has created a nation of the displaced, with volunteers struggling to support devastated communities as large-scale humanitarian funding dwindles. Even soldiers are not spared.
In a camp in North Darfur, SAF soldiers who laid down their arms after Al Fashir's fall live among civilians with no military support. Ali Adam described a doomsday scenario of total collapse: "There were no instructions from the top command. Everyone just scattered... It was every man for himself."
After 1,000 days, with foreign weapons proliferating and cities like Al Fashir destroyed, millions of Sudanese remain deprived, displaced, and longing for a political solution to end the violence tearing their country apart.
