Sudan
It has been two years since a civil war began in Sudan on April 15, 2023. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) fight for power has plunged the country into violence.
Both the RSF and SAF have traded attacks in the past year. Last month, the SAF reclaimed the country’s capital, Khartoum. This was a major victory, but the violence has only escalated since.
On April 15, 2025, the RSF declared its intent to create a rival government with the territories that it controls. RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said his militia and civilian allies “have chosen a different path” and have declared “the establishment of the Government of Peaceand Unity,” describing it as “a broad civilian coalition.”Dagalo said, “We are building the only realistic future for Sudan.”
The announcement came after the RSF and their allies rampaged the famished refugee camps of Zamzam and Abu Shouk. These camps held over 700,000 people who fled their homes in North Darfur. The RSF’s two-day attack killed over 400 people, including children and aid workers. The attack also forced approximately 400,000 people to flee from the Zamzam camp.
This year, President Donald Trump suspended USAID’s funding to Sudan, straining Sudan further. More than 25 million Sudanese people are facing famine, with soup kitchens closing and child malnutrition rising 10 times above the emergency threshold.
Since April 15, 2023, 13 million Sudanese civilians have been displaced, about four million people who have fled to other countries and an estimated 24,000 people have been killed.
Palestine
Israel has continued to kill thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in its mission to eliminate Hamas.
Since March 18, when Israel broke the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Israel has ramped up its violence against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Its military has killed over 1,700 Palestinians, most of whom have been women and children. Israel has also established a blockade on humanitarian aid in Gaza.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “Israel has ‘no choice’ but to keep fighting for our very existence until victory.” Netanyahu has said that Hamas’s rejection of Israel’s ceasefire deal is a reason for Israel to continue fighting against Hamas.
Hamas rejected a ceasefire deal that was proposed by Israel on April 17. The deal called for a 45-day truce when the countries would exchange hostages and negotiate a permanent ceasefire.
He said, “If we surrender to Hamas’s demands now, all the tremendous achievements gained by our soldiers, our fallen, and our wounded heroes those achievements will simply be lost,” and that allowing Hamas to remain in Gaza means “President Trump’s important vision could never be realized.”
Hamas has been adamant that Israeli troops be removed from the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire deal and has refused to a complete disarmament. More than 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced since March 18. The UN has given a warning about supplies running out in Gaza, and has said, “lifesaving supplies were nearing ‘total depletion’ due to Israel’s block on aid.”
Most of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed. The education system has completely collapsed, with all 625,000 Gazan children out of school. More than 90% of water and sanitation stations have been destroyed. The healthcare system is operating with little to no electricity, with 84% of it destroyed.
Since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7th, 2023, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, with people still unaccounted for and no end in sight to the violence.
The Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is suffering due to the exploitation of its minerals, labor, political instability and the deterioration of human rights in the country.
Three American citizens were part of an attempted coup on the Congolese government in May 2024. Each of them initially received a death sentence. The president of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi said, “Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson and Benjamin Zalman-Polun were granted individual clemency and had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.”
The Congolese authorities said that the coup took place near the presidential palace, starting with a gunshot before armed men took the presidential palace for a brief moment. The coup leader, Christian Malanga, livestreamed the attack but was later killed by security forces.
On Tuesday, the three Americans boarded the plane, with Congolese spokeswoman Tina Salama saying, “that the plane was bound for the United States, where the three men would serve their sentences.” There have been no updates on the men’s sentencing by the United States.
50 people were killed in an attack on the eastern part of Congo on April 13. Both the Congolese government and the March 23 Movement (M23), a rebel military group opposing the Congolese government, were involved. This attack is just another chapter in the violence between the two groups.
Both of these groups have blamed each other for violence while also escalating it this year. M23 seized the cities of Goma in January and Bukavu in February.
There was also a shooting in Goma that killed 52 people, including a person at the Goma hospital on April 11 and 12, which the Congolese government blames on M23. Lawrence Kanyuka, a spokesperson for M23, blamed Congolese forces and their allies. Kanyuka said, “Congo’s joint operations with local militias and southern African troops directly threaten the stability and security of civilians.”
The fighting has killed over 3,000 people and displaced over 7 million people, creating a humanitarian crisis.
