Roadside graveyards in Omdurman, Sudan, on April 27, 2025. Giles Clarke/Getty Images

The horrifying reports of the massacre of hundreds of Sudanese civilians after the Darfur city of El Fasher was captured by the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week were the latest chapter in a brutal conflict that has killed more than 150,000 people over the past two and a half years.

But while the war in Sudan has most often been portrayed as an internal conflict between two warring generals, the murky involvement of several foreign powers makes the conflict far more complex – and deadly.

Sudan is seen by many as strategically important within the wider region. A bridge between the Middle East and Africa, Sudan controls some 500 miles of Red Sea coast along a major shipping route. It has p

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