Two years of civil war in Sudan: how can the fighting end?

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

The civil war in Sudan, which broke out two years ago, has been described by aid agencies as the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world." Today, at a conference in London, delegations from European countries, the African Union, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt pledged to increased aid to Sudan, as well as try to find a pathway to peace. Also in the programme: the US Department of Education says it's freezing around $2.5 billion of federal funding to Harvard University, accusing the institution of fighting White House demands to combat left-wing bias at universities; and a 16th century book about cheese reveals details of Britain's long love affair with the dairy product.

(Photo: A woman sits by the roadside after paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacks on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk refugee camps, near the city of El-Fasher in Darfur. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London.
0:09.5	I'm Tim Franks.
0:11.2	It was two years ago, today, that one of the world's worst crises began.
0:17.2	Oh my God, it's flying over. It's so close. Yeah, I think you can hear it now.
0:28.0	Get down, get down. That young woman in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum was shouting on the line to us as a fighter jet flew over her home on April the 15th, 2023.
0:43.0	The two military factions that together had seized power from a transitional civilian government had begun their fight against each other,
0:49.9	the paramilitary rapid support forces against the Sudanese National Army.
0:54.6	Two years on, the army has managed to rest back control of the capital, but the fighting elsewhere in this vast country continues.
1:02.1	The fighting and the suffering on an epic scale. I called it one of the worst crises in the world.
1:08.5	Humanitarian agencies say it is the worst. Indeed,
1:11.6	the worst some of them have ever seen. It's not just the great numbers, killed, brutalised, raped.
1:18.0	It's also the millions who've been displaced, the tens of millions who are hungry.
1:23.3	The RSF may have been driven out of Khartoum, but they're trying to strengthen their hold in the west of the country.
1:28.2	El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is the last city in the region still holding out against the RSF.
1:35.6	No journalists have been able to reach Elfashir, but people living there have shared exclusive footage with the BBC, capturing their daily battle to survive.
1:44.9	Heber Bita has this report, and a warning, some of you may find the report distressing.
1:56.3	This woman sings at a woman's supporter group at a camp in Adre Chad,
2:01.1	home to more than 250,000 refugees from Sudan,
2:05.3	where a civil war has wreaked havoc since 2003.
2:09.0	The army and the RSF, a paramilitary group, formerly part of the armed forces,
2:13.8	are fighting for control.
2:15.7	As many as 150,000 people are believed to have died.
	...

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