Sudan's war has displaced 8.6 million civilians, 16% of the country's population, according to the UN. A conference was held in Paris on Monday to try to help the displaced.
Sudanese militia, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have never hidden their ambitions. The militia is in fact the direct heir of the janjawid, who, at the dawn of the 2000s, ravaged Darfur, causing the death of at least 300,000 people. The main cities of Khartoum and Omdurman have been destroyed, says Suliman Baldo, founder of the think tank Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker. In December, Wadani, the main city of the state of al-Jezira, was taken by the RSF, says Roland Marchal, a researcher at Sciences Po. The army has retreated to Port Sudan, which has become the de facto capital of a ravaged state, under the militiamen, he adds.