This report reviews the security, humanitarian, human rights, and civil society situation in the Darfur states during September 2025, within a highly complex context where political and military crises intersect with administrative and economic collapse, and where state authority has weakened, allowing armed groups; the Rapid Support Forces and the Tasis Alliance to exert control.
According to field observations monitored by the Sudan Rights Watch Network – Sudan, the security environment remains unstable and, in fact, increasingly deteriorating. Incidents of killing, armed robbery, and various forms of threats have been repeatedly recorded. Intensive military movements by the RSF were also observed in East and West Darfur, accompanied by random gunfire, which heightened residents’ fears and disrupted commercial and agricultural activities. Impunity remains one of the most prominent manifestations of institutional collapse, as no judicial measures or independent investigations are carried out in most crimes and violations.
The Network also documented multiple cases of repression, harassment, enforced disappearance, kidnapping, and arbitrary detention including the arrest of women and girls on political charges or on accusations of collaborating with the army, as well as the detention of individuals suffering from psychological disorders without any legal basis. Field monitoring further revealed the continued recruitment of children, particularly in areas west of Nyala city, under harsh conditions that lack care and open the door to the formation of new armed networks. The health crisis has worsened with the spread of malaria and cholera, especially in South and East Darfur, amid the absence of an effective response from authorities constituting a violation of the population’s right to health and a dignified life.
Despite the dire circumstances, civil society demonstrated notable vitality. Local initiatives and emergency rooms carried out awareness, health, and relief activities most prominently cholera prevention campaigns, environmental sanitation, distribution of mosquito nets and food items, and workshops on peacebuilding and combating hate speech. However, these efforts face structural challenges, most notably the lack of funding, disruption of banking services, and the issuance of restrictive decisions by the Sudanese Relief and Humanitarian Operations Agency affiliated with the RSF, which limit the independence of organizations, require prior coordination, and mandate disbursing aid in francs, while threatening to dissolve organizations registered before the war.
Nevertheless, women-led initiatives emerged as key actors in community cohesion. They organized workshops and discussion sessions on peace, the role of art in change, and combating hate speech targeting women, artists, hakamat (traditional praise singers), and mothers. However, increasing politicization and the absence of legal protection make women’s engagement in the civil sphere fraught with risks.
The report concludes that the overall situation is characterized by dual fragility, security and civic manifested in the absence of the rule of law, the politicization of humanitarian work, and the erosion of civic space. Although community initiatives continue to perform their humanitarian and rights-based roles, the absence of protection and accountability mechanisms threaten to shrink civic spaces and turn voluntary work into a subject to influence, rather than an independent sphere serving society and its rights.
