The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by the police challenging the bail granted to former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 riots in the capital, Bar and Bench reported. While hearing the appeal against her bail
Nazakat Ali's phone rings in the evening, as it often does now. The 30-year-old tourist guide in Indian-administered Kashmir answers with the same practised calm every time - yes, it is safe; yes, he will be there; yes, they should come. On the other end are people planning holidays to the stunning
Rivalries make sport tick. But sometimes, respect speaks louder than competition. And right now, that’s exactly what Jannik Sinner is doing for Carlos Alcaraz. In a major blow to the clay-court season, Alcaraz has officially withdrawn from French Open next month due to a wrist injury
Domestic worker in Singapore alleges British Indian family made her sleep on yoga mat: ‘I felt uncomfortable'A domestic worker in Singapore claimed a British Indian family made her sleep on a yoga mat and allegedly refused to pay for four days of work. Updated on: Apr 25
U.S. negotiators are scheduled to leave for Pakistan on Saturday (April 25, 2026), but Iran said its officials did not plan to meet the Americans to discuss ending the war that has killed thousands and roiled global markets. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and
Sudan’s 1,000 days of devastating war: A retired UN official on the deep roots of the conflict
For years, Sudan has existed in the global imagination as a peripheral crisis – periodically erupting into violence, then fading back into obscurity. The civil war that started in April 2023 has now lasted more than 1,000 days. Sudan is now the site of the world's largest displacement crisis, one of its most severe hunger emergencies and a conflict marked by brutality so extreme that seasoned humanitarian observers struggle for language to describe it.
I had a view of the violence in 2007, when I opted for an international posting as a United Nations Head of Field Office in the remote Sudanese town of Mukjar in West Darfur, bordering Chad and the Central African Republic.
My office sat amidst four sites where genocides are alleged to have been committed on Darfuri communities by Janjaweed, the militia controlled by Omar al-Bashir, the country's longtime president.
Large swathes of land and villages had been burnt. When the wind blew, cinders would fly up from the shells of charred hut shells. We would routinely find skulls and bones.
The roots of Sudan's catastrophe stretch back decades. Shortly after it became independent from the British in 1956, a war broke out between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian- and animist-dominated south. South Sudan eventually became a separate country in 2011.
When my adolescent daughters joined me for their vacations in Khartoum in 2007, Sudan's capital was described as one of the safest cities in Africa. Not once did we feel fear while on the streets. That calm, however, rested on repression by the two-decade-long military dictatorship led by Omar-al-Bashir.
During Bashir's dictatorship, over half a million Sudanese had been killed by his Janjaweed militia.
Under Bashir, the state perfected the system of outsourcing violence to militias. It offered them impunity and denied responsibility for their actions. Among these military-affiliated militias were the Janjaweed – groups that later formalised into the Rapid Support Forces.
Many of their victims were from Darfur, a remote semi-desert plateau in western Sudan that was home to the Fur tribes. Bashir was eventually indicted by the International Criminal Court.
The current conflict started in April 2023, a reverberation of Bashir being overthrown in 2019 by a people's revolution. The revolution briefly rekindled hope. Civilians demanded democracy, accountability and an end to military rule. But this transition was derailed by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
Since then, though, these forces have fallen out. The violence engulfing Sudan today is the result of a battle for control between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The Rapid Support Forces has carried out massacres, racialised killings, systematic rape and ransom detentions across Darfur, Kordofan and beyond, audaciously filming themselves hurling racial slurs before executions.
In the early 2000s, the same Janjaweed had ridden on horses and pick-ups into the settlements in Darfur of communities that they considered racially inferior and “slaves”, raping, looting and destroying homes.
Some of the current disturbing reports emerging from Darfur's capital of El-Fasher describe fighters of the Rapid Support Forces forcibly drawing blood from civilians and captured soldiers, leading to them being described as “literal vampires”.
Medical workers have not been spared. Doctors and nurses have disappeared, detained by Rapid Support Forces fighters, leaving entire communities without care. Sexual violence has been deployed as a weapon of war. The scale is immense, with women and girls, particularly from non-Arab communities bearing the brunt.
Through much of the early 2000s, El Fasher was a base for humanitarian and protection forces. In the latest civil war, it had been the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces. It fell to the Rapid Support Forces in October 2025, after an 18-month siege. They unleashed a massacre.
When United Nations teams finally accessed El Fasher again at the end of December, they described the city as having turned into a crime scene. Satellite imagery and forensic reporting documented burned bodies and mass killings.
Of the roughly 260,000 civilians believed to have been alive there before the takeover, many are now dead, detained, trapped or cut off entirely from lifesaving aid. Children victims are the most visible, with acute malnourishment, abandoned and lost children arriving alone at displacement sites, separated from families whose fate remains unknown.
The fate of Western Darfur is reportedly worse than that of Northern Darfur, with little news emerging from refugees fleeing to Chad and Central African Republic. They are being received by the United Nations Refugee Agency in areas already bereft, impoverished and remote.
The suffering in Sudan has collided with a global retreat from humanitarian responsibility, with funding cuts forcing the United Nations to slash its appeals. The United Nations leadership has described 2025 as a year of “brutality, impunity and indifference”.
Forced displacement in Sudan is the current norm for civilians to survive the violence and impunity of both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Faced with 40 million people having acute needs, aid workers must make impossible choices. The Sudan crisis dwarfs most others, yet donor fatigue and geopolitical distractions have left response efforts dangerously under-resourced.
Thousands of Sudanese who escaped to Egypt have been detained and deported back into the war zone. Human rights groups are documenting arrests, abuse and killings by Egyptian security services. Many refugees are deported as they lack residency permits, requirements almost impossible to meet due to massive registration backlogs.
In some cases, identity documents issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have been confiscated deliberately, stripping refugees of legal protection and access to asylum. Community leaders and even children have been targeted. Egypt's migration containment deals with the European Union, designed to block onward movement, have turned neighbouring countries into extensions of Sudan's violence.
Diplomatically, Sudan is trapped.
The Sudanese Armed Forces have rejected US-led truce proposals, claiming that they are biased toward the United Arab Emirates, which is widely accused of backing the Rapid Support Forces. The Army chief has framed the conflict as a sovereign army defending civilians from a genocidal militia, a narrative that ignores the state's long history of cultivating the Rapid Support Forces and their joint role in crushing Sudan's democratic movement.
Civilian leaders have attempted to reassert themselves, forming a “Third Pole” opposed to both generals. Yet, amid guns, drones and foreign interference, their influence remains limited.
As Sudan concludes 1,000 days of war, the consequences are unmistakable: mass death, starvation, sexual violence, and the systematic destruction of a society and a nation, the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.
Yet, amid the devastation, fragments of resistance persist. There are youth ambassadors working for peace, farmers planting seeds through United Nations programmes and communities struggling to survive under siege.
Whether these fragile efforts can outlast the violence remains uncertain.
It is clear that Sudan's tragedy is not inevitable, but the result of deliberate choices by armed actors, by political elites, and by an international community that has too often looked away.
Sumbul Rizvi has recently retired from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She served in Darfur for two years from 2007.
Source: Scroll
Related Posts: Peripheral neuropathy 5 James Bond gadgets you didn’t know existed in real life Three years of messages at once - a chronicle of Sudan's war pours in as trapped reporter's phone turns on A landslide in Sudan's Darfur wipes out a village Sudan's RSF shells hospital 11 workers killed after gold mine collapse in Sudan Will anything—or anyone—stop the slaughter in Sudan Nepal Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigns after row about financial conduct Indian national captured by RSF militia in Sudan Sudan’s top General rejects U
Sachin, Vice Prez, CM Naidu to participate in Andhra University centenary event on April 27Sachin, Vice Prez, CM Naidu to participate in Andhra University centenary event on April 27 Published on: Apr 25, 2026 12:48 PM IST PTI Share via Copy link Visakhapatnam
39 minutes ago
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday targeted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal over his new bungalow at Lodhi Estate in Delhi, calling it “Sheesh Mahal 2” and alleging the use of private money for high-end upgrades. AAP rejected the charges, terming them false
39 minutes ago
India’s running culture is seeing a noticeable shift. Weekend race calendars are filling up, city running clubs are expanding, and more professionals are quietly building distance into already packed schedules. In this environment, a daily trainer needs to do more than soften impact
39 minutes ago
A group of Republican lawmakers in the United States has proposed a bill seeking a three-year pause on the issuance of H-1B visas, along with a major overhaul of the programme. The legislation, titled the “End H-1B Visa Abuse Act of 2026," has been introduced by Eli Crane
39 minutes ago
Islamabad faces a week-long security lockdown. Markets are deserted and transport disrupted. This is the second lockdown in recent weeks. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived for talks. US officials were also expected. Hopes remain for engagements to promote regional peace and stability
39 minutes ago
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday affirmed support for fellow leader Pawan Khera, who is facing an FIR filed by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, over allegations linked to her possessing multiple passports
39 minutes ago
In India, innovation doesn’t always come from labs or big companies. Sometimes, it comes from a problem that needs solving right now, with whatever is available. It’s a word people use for quick, practical fixes. But over time, some of these fixes have turned into ideas that are surprisingly
39 minutes ago
Twenty-three percent of the candidates contesting the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal have declared criminal cases in their affidavits, a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms has shown. The report released on Tuesday analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 2
39 minutes ago
Bhullar stands tall as fault lines appear in SingaporeIndian golfers struggled at the Singapore Open, with only three making the cut, highlighting a concerning trend in their performance on the international stage. Updated on: Apr 25, 2026 1:49 PM IST By Shantanu Srivastava Share via Copy link
39 minutes ago
April 25 Birthday Horoscope: Here's what the tarot cards have in store for you If your birthday falls on April 25, here’s what your year ahead looks like, as per Tarot Updated on: Apr 25, 2026 11:24 AM IST By Kishori Sud Share via Copy link If you were born on April 25
39 minutes ago
The negotiating teams of India and the U.S. held “constructive” and “forward-looking” talks on a trade deal, the Indian government said following the conclusion of the talks. The talks took place in Washington on April 20-23, 2026. India and the U.S
39 minutes ago
In a job market currently under stress from daily news of layoffs and hiring freezes, one Gurugram-based techie, Priyanka Giri has given us a dose of hope and happiness by sharing her story. After being unemployed for four months and facing rejections from Meta and Microsoft
39 minutes ago
uaresults.nic.in, UBSE UK Board Results 2026 Class 10th, 12th Live: The Uttarakhand Board of School Education (UBSE), Dehradun, has announced the Class 10 and Class 12 examination results 2026 today, April 25. This year, 98.20% of students passed the Class 10 examination, compared to 90
39 minutes ago
Endoscopic neurospine surgeon breaks down top exercises for posture and spine health: From squats and sit-ups to planksNote that every exercise is spine-friendly. Neurospine surgeons list down the top exercises for a pain-free back. Published on: Apr 25
39 minutes ago
Former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has released a new book. It reveals lesser-known stories from India's armed forces. The book unearths military myths and mysteries. It includes tales of soldiers, naval incidents, and airmen. The book is researched and readable. It highlights duty
39 minutes ago
On Friday, she announced plans to launch a new regional political force in the state, asserting that it will focus on the “aspirations and unfinished agenda” of the state. Around seven months after quitting the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K
39 minutes ago
Mumbai, Apr 25 (PTI) Kannada superstar Shiva Rajkumar is set to appear in an action-drama movie, titled, “Bail", the makers have announced. The makers unveiled the first look of the film, which coincides with Shiva Rajkumar’s father Dr Rajkumar’s 97th birth anniversary, on Friday.Mumbai
39 minutes ago
India, US agree to remain engaged after trade talksThe Indian delegation, led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain, discussed “multiple areas such as market access, non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation Published on: Apr 25
39 minutes ago
It's not often a thousand-word social media post from a US tech firm goes viral. But the post from Palantir - a 22-point manifesto of sorts - currently has over 30 million views on X. It is the work of the controversial company's co-founder and chief executive
39 minutes ago
Kyiv, Apr 25 (AP) Russian drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least three people and wounded 21, local authorities said Saturday. The bodies of the three were found in the ruins of a house destroyed in the overnight attacks
39 minutes ago
EBITDA decreased by 4%, and margins contracted to 15.0% while the capital expenditure for the quarter was Rs 40,560 crore. Reliance Industries has reported a decline in the Net Profit by 9% QoQ to Rs 16,971 Crore from Rs 18,645 Crore while its revenue increased by 11% to Rs 2,94,059 crore from Rs 2
39 minutes ago
New Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the world's Anglican Christians, heads to Rome and the Vatican this weekend for an audience with Pope Leo XIV. Archbishop Mullally will meet the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics during a four-day visit starting on
39 minutes ago
Annu Kapoor has opened up about his sister Seema Kapoor’s brief marriage to Om Puri. In a recent interview, Annu accused the late actor of ruining his sister’s life and claimed that he ‘betrayed’ her. “Om Puri was a phenomenal actor. There was no great actor like him
39 minutes ago
Exclusive | ‘Taal 2 script is almost complete’: Confirms Subhash Ghai, lauds Ahaan Panday-Aneet Padda's SaiyaaraIn a chat with HT City, filmmaker Subhash Ghai opens up about his plans for Taal 2, a sequel to Aishwarya Rai and Akshaye Khanna's 1999 film Updated on: Apr 25
39 minutes ago
Raghav Chadha joins BJP: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday took a sharp jibe at Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and other Rajya Sabha MPs after they joined the BJP after severing ties with the AAP. The Punjab unit of the AAP shared a poster on Facebook featuring the defected MPs, viz.
39 minutes ago
Paytm says it has no exposure to Paytm Payments Bank and does not have any material business arrangements with the entity. Paytm on Friday said the cancellation of the banking licence of associate entity Paytm Payments Bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have no financial or business
39 minutes ago
Every year, as the snow melts and the Himalayan trails come alive, thousands of pilgrims and trekkers make their way to Hemkund Sahib, which happens to be one of the highest gurudwaras in the world. Nestled at an altitude of 4,329 metres in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district
39 minutes ago
