Five Maps of the War (Sudan)
Territorial control, the displacement crisis and the partition line, in five maps.
ACLED, Sudan Conflict Data & Analysis
Source: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
ACLED is the preeminent source for structured conflict data on Sudan, providing event-level coding of battles, explosions, violence against civilians, protests, and strategic developments across every state. Their Sudan data has been cited in UN Security Council briefings, ICJ proceedings, and virtually every major policy brief on the conflict. The interactive map allows filtering by event type, actor, date range, and geography, enabling analysis that ranges from nationwide strategic overview to granular examination of specific massacres.
ACLED’s characterization of Sudan as “the world’s deadliest conflict for civilians” is grounded in their own event-level data. The dataset captures not just battles between the SAF and RSF but the systematic violence against civilians that has defined this war: ethnically targeted killings in Darfur, the weaponization of food access, attacks on healthcare facilities, and sexual violence documented by multiple human rights organizations. The open methodology means every coded event is verifiable and traceable to its source.
ACLED publishes under open-access terms and explicitly encourages researchers and journalists to use and redistribute their data.
Sudan Shahid, Collaborative Violence Documentation
Source: Sudan Shahid Collaborative Documentation Project
Sudan Shahid represents a fundamentally different approach to conflict mapping: a global collaborative effort to collect, monitor, and analyze visual documentation of violence across Sudan. Rather than tracking frontlines or territorial control, Sudan Shahid maps specific incidents of violence, geolocating atrocities, documenting destruction, and preserving evidence that may eventually be used in international accountability proceedings.
The platform aggregates reports from Sudanese citizens, diaspora networks, and local organizations, creating a crowdsourced record of the war’s human cost that official data sources cannot capture. In a conflict where the health infrastructure that normally counts deaths has itself been destroyed, where, as Alex de Waal has noted, casualty figures are likely underestimates by a factor of 3-5x, Sudan Shahid’s citizen-driven documentation fills a critical evidentiary gap.
As a collaborative documentation initiative built around transparency and accountability, Sudan Shahid actively encourages the use and redistribution of their mapping and evidence.
LiveUAMap, Sudan Real-Time Tracker
Source: LiveUAMap
LiveUAMap’s Sudan module provides real-time geolocated news coverage, aggregating reports from international wire services, Sudanese media, humanitarian organizations, and verified social media. Each event is placed on an interactive map with a chronological feed, enabling users to track how the conflict unfolds across Sudan’s vast territory in real time.
The platform captured the SAF’s recapture of Khartoum in March 2025 and the subsequent RSF drone offensive against El Obeid as they developed. During the catastrophic RSF assault on El Fasher, where 460 people were killed at El-Saudi hospital alone, LiveUAMap was among the first platforms to geolocate reports of mass atrocities and track the progression of the attack. The real-time nature complements the more analytical but slower-updating resources from ACLED and research organizations.
LiveUAMap supports embedding through dedicated frame endpoints and encourages integration into news and research platforms.
CFR Global Conflict Tracker, Sudan
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker provides an authoritative strategic overview that connects Sudan’s military situation to its diplomatic, humanitarian, and geopolitical dimensions. CFR’s Sudan coverage has been particularly valuable for tracking the war’s international dimensions, the UAE’s support for the RSF through gold and weapons flows, Egypt’s backing of the SAF, Turkey’s provision of Akinci drones, and the humanitarian aid access crisis exacerbated by U.S. funding cuts.
The tracker situates Sudan within the broader pattern of great-power competition in Africa, connecting local territorial dynamics to regional and global strategic interests. CFR’s assessment of U.S. policy options and the effectiveness of sanctions regimes provides context that purely military maps cannot.
As a nonprofit think tank, CFR actively encourages the citation and redistribution of its public research.
International Crisis Group, Sudan Analysis
Source: International Crisis Group
Crisis Group’s Sudan program has produced the most extensive body of analytical work on the conflict, including detailed research reports on the RSF’s parallel government, the gold economy sustaining the war, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur. Their CrisisWatch monthly assessments track whether the conflict is escalating, stable, or showing potential openings for mediation.
Crisis Group’s Kholood Khair and Jonas Horner have been among the most cited analysts of the conflict, and their assessment that de facto partition is the most likely medium-term outcome has shaped international policy discussions. The organization’s field access, maintaining contacts in both SAF and RSF areas, gives their geographic analysis a ground-truth credibility that remote sensing alone cannot provide.
As a nonprofit dedicated to conflict prevention, Crisis Group encourages the wide distribution of its public research and analysis.
Further cartographic resources
- Bloomberg, Sudan Conflict Impact Map (Paywalled), Bloomberg’s graphics team produced detailed visualization of Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, mapping displacement flows, food insecurity zones, and the gold trade routes that finance the RSF. The economic lens, showing how conflict, famine, and resource extraction interact geographically, is distinctive. Requires Bloomberg subscription. link
- Al Jazeera, Sudan War Maps (Restricted), Al Jazeera’s data journalism team has produced extensive cartographic coverage of Sudan’s war, including territorial control maps, displacement tracking, and visualizations of the conflict’s spread from Khartoum to Darfur and Kordofan. Their Arabic-language coverage provides perspectives often missing from Western outlets. Embedding restricted. link
- BBC, Sudan Crisis Visual Guide (Restricted), The BBC’s visual journalism team has produced accessible explainers with maps showing territorial control, displacement routes, and the humanitarian crisis. Their format serves a broad audience and has been widely shared. Embedding restricted by BBC content policies. link