Sudan's civil war on the map: SAF, RSF and seven neighbours
Why in news: The UN Security Council met on Sudan on 16 October 2026 as drone strikes killed civilians and famine risk spread across Darfur and Kordofan.
Sudan has been at war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The army holds much of the centre and east; the RSF holds Darfur and areas in the south. The UN Security Council met on 16 October 2026 as drones and hunger spread.
Syllabus: Prelims · Geography; GS2 · Poverty & Hunger; GS2 · Foreign Policies & the Diaspora
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 international relations and GS1 world geography: Prelims asks Sudan's neighbours, the Nile confluence at Khartoum, the IPC famine phase and UN sanctions; Mains asks about conflict-driven famine, UN sanctions and India's evacuation diplomacy.
In short
Sudan's civil war is a struggle for the state between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, fought since April 2023 across a country bordering seven nations.
Sudan's war runs on many fronts at once; only a ceasefire, unhindered aid and a tighter check on arms can halt the slide to famine.
Why it matters
For a family in a displacement camp in Darfur, the war decides whether food reaches them at all: aid trucks come under fire, markets are struck and drought has wiped out crops, so children slide into severe malnutrition that can kill them if no clinic is within reach. A war in one country also spills into its neighbours, as refugees cross into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and beyond, straining poorer states. For India, the war meant pulling its citizens out under fire in 2023, a steep fall in exports and a shrunken Indian community. The larger question is whether the world's tools, from UN sanctions to hunger alerts, can protect civilians when two armed forces fight over a state.
Prelims pointers
- Sudan's neighbours by direction: Egypt north, Libya north-west, Chad west, Central African Republic south-west, South Sudan south, Ethiopia south-east, Eritrea north-east.
- Uganda and Kenya are not among Sudan's seven neighbours; South Sudan, its southern neighbour, seceded from Sudan in 2011.
- The Nile forms at Khartoum from the Blue Nile and White Nile and flows north through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.
- Sudan's highest point, the Deriba Caldera, lies in the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra) of the west; the Red Sea Hills rise in the east.
- Resolution 1556 (2004) first imposed the Darfur arms embargo, including on the Janjaweed; resolution 1591 (2005) added travel bans and asset freezes.
- IPC Phase 5 thresholds: at least 20% of people facing extreme hunger, 30% of children wasted, and over two deaths per 10,000 adults a day.
- India's evacuations: Operation Raahat (Yemen, 2015), Devi Shakti (Afghanistan, 2021), Ganga (Ukraine, 2022) and Kaveri (Sudan, 2023).
- Sukumar Sen, then India's Chief Election Commissioner, conducted Sudan's first parliamentary elections in 1953, per the MEA.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the geography of Sudan, consider the following statements:
1. Sudan shares a land border with Eritrea.
2. Sudan shares a land border with Uganda.
3. Libya lies to the north-west of Sudan.
4. Sudan's coastline lies on the Gulf of Aden.
How many of the above statements are correct?
- (a) Only one
- (b) Only two
- (c) Only three
- (d) All four
Show the answer
Answer: (b) Only two
Answer: (b) Only two. Statements 1 and 3 are correct; Uganda is not a neighbour and the coast is on the Red Sea.
Statement 1: correct. Eritrea is one of Sudan's seven neighbours, lying to its north-east, per the World Bank and the Sudanese embassy.
Statement 2: incorrect. Uganda receives Sudanese refugees, but Sudan's seven neighbours are Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Statement 3: correct. Libya borders Sudan on the north-west.
Statement 4: incorrect. Sudan's 853 km coastline lies on the Red Sea, not the Gulf of Aden.
Eliminate: Statement 2 is surely wrong, since Uganda is not on the World Bank's list of neighbours, so not all four. Out: (d).
Eliminate: Statement 4 is also wrong (Red Sea coast), so at most two. Out: (c).
Eliminate: Statements 1 and 3 are both right, so at least two. Out: (a).
Trap: Look-alike names. UNHCR's list of countries Sudanese fled to includes Uganda, and the Gulf of Aden sits near the Red Sea; both tempt a careless map reading.
Remember: Sudan's ring of seven: Egypt, Libya, Chad, CAR, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, plus the Red Sea.
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