1.1.3. Territorial control

Map 2. Sudan Approximate Territorial Control as of 30 November 2024, Political Geography Now.95

Note: the depictions on this map do not express any stance from the EUAA concerning legal status or effective control over any country, territory, city, or area. Efforts were made to maintain accuracy; however, there is no assurance that its features are spatially or temporally precise or fit for a particular purpose. This map is provided without any form of warranty, whether expressed or implied.

During the reference period, the country remained fragmented into different areas of control. Most territories were either being held by the SAF or the RSF, who were the primary factions in the conflict, alongside local armed groups controlling regional territories.96

The SAF retained control over the country’s north, east and southeast, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea Coast.97 Most areas of Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman were under SAF control as of May 202498 and the SAF recaptured several more suburbs in August 2024.99

Meanwhile, the RSF has been controlling most of the city of Khartoum since April 2023,100 although the SAF continued to hold its General Command Headquarters. During its September 2024 offensive, the SAF recaptured at least one of Khartoum city’s neighbourhoods and retook control of several neighbourhoods in the adjacent city of Khartoum Bahri.101

The RSF controlled large swaths of West and North Kordofan in the country’s south102 and bolstered its hold of West Kordofan as its captured the cities of Al-Fula (June 2024),103Al-Meiram (July 2024)104 and Wad Banda (October 2024).105 Similarly, it seized most key cities in Sennar state (late June/early July 2024)106 and consolidated its control there, while the SAF managed to hold on to Sennar city.107 In the central Sudanese state of Al Jazirah,108 the RSF extended its control across most of the state’s territory after seizing the city of Wad Madani in December 2023.109 In January 2025, the SAF reported that it had retaken Wad Madani from the RSF.110

In Darfur, El Fasher was the only state capital not fully controlled by the RSF.111 A ‘patchwork’ of different armed actors including the SAF and the RSF were holding different parts of the El Fasher area.112 The SAF’s control of the city was exercised by its allies from the JFASM.113 However, by November 2024, the RSF was controlling most of the city’s neighbourhoods.114 The same month, it was reported that the RSF was closing in on the city’s SAF military headquarters, with the New Arab news website suggesting that the paramilitaries were on the verge of seizing full control of the city.115

Meanwhile, the Sudan Liberation Movement – Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLM-AW), which declared itself neutral in the current conflict, has continuously controlled parts of the Jebel Marra in Darfur.116 For more information on the SLM-AW, see section 1.1.3 Security situation of the previous EUAA report Sudan - Country Focus (April 2024). In the south of the country, the SPLM-N-al-Hilu, another neutral group, controlled parts of Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.117