Trump pledges to take action on ending war in Sudan

US President Donald Trump has said that he will begin “working” on the military conflict in Sudan after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked him for assistance during his visit to the United States.

According to Arab News, Trump made the remarks at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, DC.

“His Majesty would like me to do something very powerful having to do with Sudan,” Trump said.

“It was not on my charts to be involved in, I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control,” he added. “But I just see how important that is to you, and to a lot of your friends in the room, Sudan. And we’re going to start working on Sudan.”

Sudan's conflict, erupting on April 15, 2023, pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). What began as a power struggle within the military transitional council—formed after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir—has devolved into a devastating nationwide war, marked by ethnic cleansing, famine, and foreign meddling.

The war's roots trace to Sudan's fragile post-Bashir transition: al-Burhan and Hemedti jointly led the Sovereign Council in 2021, but tensions over integrating the RSF (evolved from Bashir's notorious Janjaweed militias, implicated in the 2003–2020 Darfur genocide) into the SAF boiled over in Khartoum. Fighting rapidly spread, with the RSF seizing much of the capital until the SAF's counteroffensive in early 2025 regained control of Khartoum. By mid-2025, the frontlines stabilised in a brutal stalemate, but atrocities escalated: the RSF's October 2025 capture of El Fasher in Darfur killed at least 1,500 civilians in 48 hours, per local medics.

By Khagan Isayev