Sudan's War Explained

On 18 October 2026 a drone strike on a transport hub in a West Kordofan market town killed about 80 people, according to residents and medics. This film explains the war behind it, telling each side's account in its own terms: the Nile confluence at Khartoum, the Mahdist state and British rule, independence and two north–south wars, South Sudan's separation, Darfur and the rise of the Rapid Support Forces, the 2019 revolution, the 2021 coup and the war that began on 15 April 2023, the hunger and displacement it has caused, and the efforts to end it. Follow the rivers, split the map in 2011 and step through who held what.

Where the Niles meet

How Sudan came to its war.

A country run from the river

Two rivers, a capital, and the plains far away.

The Mahdi

A religious revolt builds a state.

Fifty years of war

Independence came with a southern revolt.

Two Sudans

The south leaves, and takes most of the oil.

War in the west

A rebellion, and the militias sent against it.

The Rapid Support Forces

A militia becomes a second army.

The fall of Bashir

Protest topples a ruler of thirty years.

Two generals, one question

Who would command the guns?

A war that moved

From the capital to the west, and back.

Each side’s account

Two stories about the same war.

A nation on the move

Millions displaced, and famine in the besieged cities.

Talks without a truce

Promises on paper, fighting on the ground.

Where the Niles meet

Old divisions, a new war, and people in between.

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