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Civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since Apr 2023. The RSF's Oct 2025 capture of El Fasher, the SAF's last Darfur stronghold, was accompanied by what rights groups call a genocidal massacre — estimates of 60,000-150,000 dead in that event alone. The RSF-led Tasis coalition has run a rival ‘Government of Peace and Unity’ from RSF-held territory since Aug 2025, with Hemedti chairing its presidential council — Crisis Group, Darfur24. The RSF has pressed a months-long siege of El-Obeid, North Kordofan’s capital — UN warns of possible “hallmarks of genocide” repeat with 500,000 trapped. The SAF has since mounted a counteroffensive recapturing the Al Sadarat highway and five North Kordofan towns, which the RSF has challenged, while responding to the advance with kamikaze-drone strikes on El-Obeid, Atbara, Omdurman and Khartoum (Aug 12) that damaged power and fuel infrastructure. Fighting has also expanded to the Blue Nile region near the Ethiopian border (Kurmuk, Geisan), raising concern about regional spillover. Both sides have turned to drones: the UN recorded 1,000+ civilian drone deaths in just the first five months of 2026. By mid-September the SAF had pushed further, retaking Hamrat al-Wiz (Sep 6) and claiming 11 areas west of El-Obeid (Sep 17). No truce has been agreed: the RSF says it accepts a US-backed 90-day humanitarian truce but rejects its withdrawal terms, and on Sep 22 the State Department said neither side had made serious commitments, declaring both leaderships ‘ineligible to govern.’ Washington also withheld a visa for army chief Burhan to address the UN General Assembly — reportedly conditioned on accepting the 90-day truce, which his government rejected — and Sudan’s Foreign Ministry ‘strongly rejected’ the legitimacy challenge, saying talks must not reward the RSF. On Sep 24 Secretary of State Rubio said the war ‘would not be happening were it not for external actors.’ A US push to extend the Darfur-only UN arms embargo nationwide faces Russian opposition; the Security Council rolled the existing embargo over Sep 11 for just one month. On Sep 23 the AU and US co-chaired the first joint meeting of the Quad and Quintet mediation formats in New York, agreeing to align humanitarian-truce, cessation-of-hostilities and civilian-dialogue tracks and to set up monitoring mechanisms — per the AU and Sudan Tribune. On the ground the air war intensified: the army resumed air strikes on the RSF logistics hub of Nyala in South Darfur on Sep 22 after months without such raids, while RSF drones hit El-Obeid’s army headquarters on Sep 21 and a displacement shelter there on Sep 25, killing 2 and wounding 20 per local authorities; on Sep 26 state agency SUNA said RSF commander Al-Tayeb Al-Wahido had defected to the army with his fighters — Sudan Tribune, Darfur24, Middle East Monitor. On Sep 25 the army and allied Joint Force retook Sodari, the RSF’s main operational base in North Kordofan; the Sudanese Doctors Network accused the RSF of looting the town’s hospital before it fell, and sources cited by Sudans Post said about 17 prisoners were killed during the capture — Sudan Tribune, Sudans Post.