Pope Leo XIV called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Sudan on Sunday as the army led by Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan vowed to keep fighting and eradicate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces by the end of 2026. The civilians trapped between these armed camps get the usual gift from organized power: more war, more speeches, and a promise that somebody else will decide when the killing stops.
The State Monopoly, Split in Two
In his address, Pope Leo said, “I urge the international community to support efforts aimed at bringing about an immediate ceasefire,” and added, “Let us pray that the Lord may sustain those who are suffering, convert the hearts of those who sow violence, and grant the long-awaited peace.” He also called for humanitarian corridors for civilians trapped in areas hit by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF. The language is pious. The reality is blunt. Two armed hierarchies are still carving up the country, each claiming the right to command, punish, and endure.
The Sudanese Armed Forces said they would continue fighting to defeat the RSF by the end of 2026, a goal analysts said was too ambitious given the paramilitary group’s deep entrenchment in western Sudan. Gen Al Burhan has resisted mediation offers by regional and international powers and vowed to pursue war despite calls to end the conflict and reinstall civilian rule. The RSF’s leader, Gen Mohamed Dagalo, appears more open to negotiations, though his stance is widely suspected to be motivated by a desire to gain legitimacy. Different posture, same logic: armed men bargaining over who gets to rule.
Who Pays for the Commanders’ War
The Sudanese army is accused of atrocities including indiscriminate bombing and the use of chemical weapons. The RSF has also been placed under sanctions over alleged war crimes. Both sides’ commanders are already under sanctions. That’s the neat little architecture of modern conflict: one force bombs, the other terrorizes, and the people underneath are left to absorb the consequences while sanctions arrive late and mostly as paperwork.
Sudan’s military leadership has also faced scrutiny after announcing plans to integrate Islamist extremist militias once loyal to former president Omar Al Bashir’s regime. Critics say those militias have helped the army make up for manpower shortages and have an interest in prolonging the war until Islamists complete a political comeback after their ouster in the 2018-2019 uprising. So the war isn’t just a battlefield. It’s also a recruitment drive for old power networks trying to claw back what they lost.
Pope Leo said, “I continue to follow with concern the tragic situation in Sudan, especially in the city of Al Obeid.” He called for humanitarian corridors for civilians and expressed his “spiritual closeness” to the Sudanese people. Access to food and health care is severely limited in Al Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. Last month, the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned that a human rights catastrophe was unfolding amid intensifying fighting. The warning landed, as these warnings usually do, somewhere above the heads of the people who can’t get food or medicine.
Fourth Year, No Exit
The war, now in its fourth year, has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and displaced about 14 million people. It broke out when differences between Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo boiled over into open hostilities that began in Khartoum and soon spread across the country. Apart from Darfur, the RSF controls parts of the Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, while the SAF controls the capital as well as northern, central and eastern Sudan. Each side has its own government, with the army-aligned administration in Port Sudan on the Red Sea and the RSF’s in Nyala in Darfur.
That’s the shape of the disaster: rival armed administrations, rival chains of command, rival claims to legitimacy, and a population scattered across the map while the men in uniform keep their institutions intact. The ceasefire appeal is the only part of the story that sounds like it was written for civilians. The rest reads like the ledger of a state system that keeps reproducing itself through war.