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“I desire a country that heals from the layered traumas of its past. One that builds a federal system, returning to the inclusive, decentralised roots that once existed in our history. I want to see a Sudan where justice is not a political bargain, but a foundation. I hope to see the brilliance of Sudanese women, scholars, artists, and youth channelled into a nation that reflects their resilience. A Sudan that is finally allowed to breathe.”

– Ilham, Sudanese community member at West London Welcome.

Sudan’s societies are historically layered and shaped by millennia of state formation, scholarship, trade, and resistance. As always, our deep-dive reports at West London Welcome aim to challenge problematic representations of the Global South as ‘inherently fragile’ and instead explore how such societies have been historically disrupted by the Global North. Rather than defining countries like Sudan as sites of violence, war, famine, and displacement, current crises must be situated within long histories of political organisation, colonial disruption, and postcolonial authoritarianism. 

UK asylum data shows that in the year ending June 2025, asylum claims from Sudanese applicants had one of the highest protection grant rates– around 98%. This underscores the severity of the ongoing crisis in Sudan and shows that those arriving in the UK are recognised as fleeing serious and well-founded risks of harm. At West London Welcome, Sudanese members make up one of the seven most represented nationalities across the 55 countries currently within our community.

Our Sudanese community members’ are an integral part of our centre. From food, music, language and art to activism, political resistance and scholarship, the Sudanese diaspora inform dialogue, initiatives and celebrations here at West London Welcome, but also across the UK. 

 To read our Sudanese community member Mohamed’s story, click here. 

Sudan’s history 

Long before European colonial rule, the Nile Valley in what is now Sudan, was home to diverse political systems. Nubian states (ancient African kingdoms) controlled trade routes, mineral resources, and agriculture along the Nile. These societies developed monumental architecture, iron-working technologies, and administrative systems.

The Funj Sultanate, a kingdom in what is now Sudan, was founded around 1504 by the leader Amara Dunqas and is often seen as an important early stage in Sudanese state formation. Power in the kingdom was frequently shared and authority was negotiated. The Sultanate governed and fostered trade and education until the early 19th century.

Colonisation 

The political economy of modern Sudan was violently reshaped through nineteenth-century conquest and later Anglo-Egyptian colonial rule. Colonisation reshaped land ownership, labour systems, and administration to serve imperial economic interests. British indirect rule and “tribal administration” (a colonial system of governing through local leaders) turned social identities into fixed political categories. This reinforced racial and regional hierarchies that privileged some elites while marginalising regions such as Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and eastern Sudan. These arrangements made ethnicity an instrument of governance and deepened inequalities between the political centre and the peripheries.

Independence 

Sudan’s formal independence in 1956, ended Anglo-Egyptian rule but left many colonial political and economic structures intact. Rather than dismantling these systems, postcolonial governments kept them, using them to create centralised, militarised rule, with little accountability. This political order laid the groundwork for repeated cycles of rebellion and repression across Sudan.

Post-independence conflict, civil war, and secession

Sudan’s post-independence history was marked by armed conflicts in the south, west, and east, driven by political exclusion, uneven development, and state violence rather than ancient ethnic divisions.

The most significant of these was the conflict between Khartoum and southern movements. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended the second civil war and paved the way for South Sudan’s independence in 2011. However, secession did not resolve the root causes of violence. Instead, it shifted tensions, leaving most oil in the south while pipelines remained in Sudan, fuelling disputes over revenue and borders. 

“In 1979 when the Chadian civil war broke out, my family was displaced to Sudan. Sudanese people showed us empathy and solidarity and many Chadians settled there. Due to tribal ties, and our extended family in Sudan, we were able to obtain Sudanese passports which enabled my family to immigrate to Saudi Arabia. The colonial borders exist only on map lines. Even though we are Chadian, my father used to say our history and destiny is shared and ‘intertwined’ with Sudan’s. I feel the same way. Everything my family achieved was thanks to Sudan welcoming us.”

– Mo, Chadian community member at West London Welcome.

The rise of the Janjaweed

At the same time, the Sudanese state developed a distinct approach to fighting rebels, most notably in Darfur. From the early 2000s, the government responded to rebellion by arming and mobilising militias, known as the Janjaweed, drawn largely from marginalised Arab farming communities. This racialised the conflict by framing entire civilian populations as enemies.

The Darfur counterinsurgency marked a decisive shift in Sudan’s governance of violence. Ethnicity became an organising principle of war, land was cleared through mass displacement, and militia violence was normalised as a tool of state power. This set a pattern: the Janjaweed helped establish militia control, influencing later security forces and embedding ethnic violence within the state. 

From Janjaweed to RSF

In the 2010s, the Janjaweed were reorganised into the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), transforming them into an official national security force. By the 2018–19 uprising, paramilitarism had become central to the state.

Revolution, counter-revolution, and renewed war

The 2018–19 revolution marked a major turning point, as mass civilian mobilisation, driven by neighbourhood resistance committees, trade unions, and feminist organisers, successfully removed Omar al-Bashir after three decades in power.

“My hope for Sudan is rooted in the memory of the 2019 sit-in – where what seemed ‘impossible’ became within reach. I want to see a Sudan where the chant of ‘Freedom, Peace, and Justice’ is no longer a protest cry, but a lived reality. I dream of a country where the ‘Resistance Committees’ and local mutual-aid networks (the very people feeding the hungry right now), are the ones designing our future. I dream of a civil state that honours its diversity and where the geography of your birth doesn’t determine the safety of your life.” 

– Iham, Sudanese community member at West London Welcome.

However, the transition was undermined by powerful military forces that continued to control political and economic life. 

The war that began on 15 April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF was not a sudden collapse, but the culmination of militarised and ethnicised violence that had been normalised and built into the state itself.

Natural resources and extraction 

The war is also connected to resource extraction. Sudan has major gold production (much of it small-scale), strong agricultural resources, and an important global supply of gum arabic (a tree gum), all of which have been tied to funding the conflict and territorial competition. Those outside the country have also sought leverage over Sudan’s conflict and transition. Investigations have found alleged links between the UAE and material support for the RSF, including evidence of weapons being re-exported in violation of arms embargoes, despite official denials. Analyses also trace how RSF-linked business and gold networks are connected to financial centres in the UAE, creating revenue that can strengthen armed groups and undermine post-revolution governance.

“It was late 2018 in Ndjamena, the Capital of Chad, when a friend of mine came to my house. He wanted to say goodbye before he went to study in Dar Al-sabah (the Land of enlightenment – as the Chadians like to call Sudan). A few weeks later, the Sudanese revolution started. I was thrilled – the popular uprising overthrew the thirty year dictatorship of Omar Al-Bashir. However, a few months later, my friend could no longer continue his studies in Sudan, and returned to Chad. He firsthandly witnessed the Khartoum Massacre which took place on the 3rd of June 2019. We prayed for a free and peaceful Sudan together. I never imagined that a peaceful revolution would turn into a civil war and humanitarian crisis that left millions of Sudanese either killed or displaced to neighbouring countries, including Chad, which hosts around a million Sudanese refugees. What made the situation worse is that the Chadian government (backed by the United Arab Emirates) is complicit in supporting one side of the conflict (UN Security Council).”

– Mo, Chadian community member at West London welcome.

A humanitarian crisis 

The war has created one of the largest global displacement crises. Millions have been uprooted internally, while millions more have crossed borders into neighbouring countries. Displacement is frequently cyclical, with families forced to flee repeatedly as frontlines shift and previously safer areas becoming sites of renewed violence.

Food insecurity and disease have worsened conditions. Agricultural collapse, siege tactics, and blocked humanitarian aid have contributed to famine conditions in parts of Darfur and the western Nuba Mountains. The destruction of civilian infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, water systems, telecommunications, transport, and banking, has constrained civilian coping mechanisms, leaving many people unable to access savings, medical care, or viable relocation options. The expansion of aerial bombardment and drone warfare has also increased the risk of harm irrespective of where people live, undermining assumptions that internal relocation can provide meaningful protection.

Continued ethnicisation of the conflict 

Individuals identified as “Black African,” particularly in Darfur and in urban peripheries such as Khartoum’s informal settlements, face heightened risks of detention, execution, and collective punishment. These risks intersect with political profiling, as those perceived to oppose the war, support democratic transformation, or engage in humanitarian and mutual-aid work are frequently targeted, regardless of their actual affiliations. Such patterns closely correspond with grounds recognised under the Refugee Convention, including race, social group membership, and political opinion, with persecution operating through perception rather than proof.

Gender-based violence 

Gender-based violence has been central to the conduct of the war. Sexual violence, including rape, abduction, sexual slavery, and forced marriage, have been widely reported in conflict zones and displacement settings, disproportionately affecting women and girls. These abuses are frequently linked to ethnic targeting and function as tools of terror, humiliation, and forced displacement. The destruction of survivor services and the collapse of protection systems further exacerbate these harms, while hunger, displacement, and economic collapse increase exposure to sexual exploitation and suppress reporting. 

El Fasher 

After months of blockade and bombardment, the city of El Fasher was captured by the RSF in October 2025, consolidated control across Darfur’s state capitals. The takeover was accompanied by large-scale civilian killings, ethnically targeted violence against non-Arab communities, enforced disappearances, kidnappings for ransom, widespread sexual abuse, and mass displacement over a compressed period. Communications blackouts and restrictions on journalists have severely limited documentation, delayed international response and ultimately made civilians even more vulnerable.

“The current government does not represent our people’s will as it imposed on us and we look forward to holding it accountable as soon as Chad and Sudan are free. My message to the Sudanese people is that Chadians are praying for a better, peaceful, and free Sudan.”

– Mo, Chadian community member at West London Welcome.

Leaving Sudan, seeking asylum and the UK. 

UNHCR’s 2026 planning figures show that neighbouring countries host Sudanese refugees at far larger scales than Europe, particularly Chad and Egypt, alongside substantial numbers in South Sudan and elsewhere. Most Sudanese refugees remain in the region, though a minority travel onward to Europe and the UK due to the absence of safe and legal migration routes. Many Sudanese nationals make up a large share of displaced people stranded in Calais, reflecting both the scale of displacement and the limits of current asylum systems.

Unaccompanied Sudanese children making their own way here are one of the groups most likely to be age-disputed by the Home Office. Often they are incorrectly assessed as adults on arrival and then accommodated as such, only to be later assessed by social workers and accepted to be children.

What we can do

To deal with these issues, we need to go beyond short-term humanitarian aid. Supporting, volunteering for, and donating to Sudanese civic actors, grassroots activist groups, women’s groups, and mutual-aid networks, who continue to articulate visions of democratic futures under extraordinary risk. Amplifying Sudanese-led analysis and organising, community-based spaces can contribute to forms of solidarity that are accountable, politically grounded, and rooted in the priorities of those most directly affected (Sudan Doctors Union, MENA Solidarity, Sudanese Community and Information Centre).

Our work at West London Welcome will continue to centre these voices, create platforms for those with lived experience, and ensure that our grassroots work continues to resist the erasure, simplification, and externalisation that so often shape responses to crisis. 

Acknowledgements

Thank you to:

All of the organisations, charities, journalists and activists  working relentlessly towards a free and peaceful Sudan. 

To read more about Sudan, please see updates and resources provided by Waging Peace, a Sudanese-British community which supports Sudanese refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK, while working for an inclusive, diverse and peaceful Sudan. 

Ilham, co-writer of this blog and a beloved Sudanese community and Advisory Board member here at West London Welcome. 

Ilham is also a member of Sudanese Women For Peace, an independent women’s group composed of Sudanese women from diverse political orientations and backgrounds.  They focus on promoting peace, equality, and human rights, with a particular emphasis on combating all forms of violence, especially violence against women. 

Mo, co-writer of this blog, Chadian community member and WLW Advisory Board member. 

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Nita Gula is Communications and Administrative Officer at West London Welcome.