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Since April 15, 2023, two Sudanese armed groups – the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces – have been locked in a violent civil war that has killed at least 15,000 people and displaced over 8.2 million. The conflict has had an enormous humanitarian toll – according to the World Food Programme, over 18 million people in the country are facing acute hunger and nearly 5 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger. We asked six experts to tell us more about why the conflict is still raging and if there is any hope of bringing it to an end.Read more below. David Shinn Professorial Lecturer, George Washington University Former Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy KhartoumIn 1985, Gaafar Nimeiry’s government was collapsing, and Sudan was descending into chaos. Defense Minister and Commander of the Armed Forces, General Suwar al-Dahab, seized control of the situation, promised immediately to hold national elections within one year and step down, and actually delivered on his promise. There are no Suwar al-Dahabs in Sudan today. Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his adversary, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are locked in a battle to the finish with no apparent interest in compromise or consideration for the welfare of the Sudanese people.Other than the miraculous appearance of another Suwar al-Dahab or an epiphany by the current antagonists, one of the few solutions to Sudan’s dilemma is the introduction of a massive outside military force to restore order. But there is no possibility that this will occur in the present international environment. Another possibility is complete coordination of leverage to end the war against the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces by Western countries, Russia, China, Sudan’s neighbors, and key Arab countries. This is almost as unlikely