Every time the Sudan conflict is described as a “civil war,” there’s an almost predictable reaction: isn’t that… reductive? It sounds smaller. Contained. Almost like something happening within a country rather than something that should concern the rest of the world.
In media language, a civil war simply means sustained, large-scale fighting within a state between organised groups. By that definition, Sudan is undeniably one. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces are not fringe actors, they are powerful, organised, and tearing the state apart in real time.
But international humanitarian law doesn’t care about how dramatic or far-reaching a conflict feels. It asks a much colder question: who is fighting whom? And that’s where the terminology shifts.
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