Sudan Control Map & Timeline: RSF Takes Darfur Cities - Dec. 2023 (Subscription)

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Map and article by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic

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From October to December of 2023, the defiant Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group accomplished a massive consolidation of control in western Sudan's Darfur region. By early December, the country’s official military had lost its footholds in four out of five of the region's state capitals - though the RSF's control of Darfur was still not as complete as most reports implied.

(This second edition of our new Sudan map series depicts control in early December 2023, based on research conducted through January of 2024. Another edition, showing the current situation in 2024, will be coming in the near future.)

See all this and more in the latest update to PolGeoNow's rigorously-researched and exhaustively cited Sudan control map and report - the most precise and accurate available online. In addition to the updated map, the report also includes a detailed chronicle of changes and events since October 9, 2023, the date illustrated by our earlier Sudan control map.

This map and report are premium content, available to paid subscribers of the PolGeoNow Conflict Mapping Service.

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Exclusive map report includes:

• Up-to-date illustration of current territorial control in Sudan's new civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (official government military) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, rigorously corroborated, with areas of ambiguity clearly indicated. 
• Detailed and carefully-researched illustration of territorial control by Sudan's two major "holdout" rebel forces from before the 2023 war: SPLM-N El Hilu in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and the SLA-AW (SLM-AW) in Darfur's Jebel Marra.
  
• Thoroughly-researched depictions of each disputed territory claimed by Sudan along the Egyptian and South Sudanese borders, marking which parts are controlled by the other countries and which parts by other groups (e.g. UN peacekeepers and the Ngok Dinka "Abyei Area Administration").
  
• Detailed indication of city-by-city control, including key towns and other locations important to current events
• Locations of recent control changes and other important events, including Nyala, Zalingei, Ed Daein, Ardamata, Balila oil field, Shag Omar oil field, Babanusa, Um Rawaba, and more.
  
• Detailed timeline of important events and changes to territorial control from October 9 to December 5, 2023, with links to sources.

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Sudan War Control Map & Timeline - October 2023

There are later versions of this map available. To see them, view all Sudan articles on PolGeoNow.

PolGeoNow proudly presents the first edition of our new Sudan war map series, meticulously researched over many months. We believe these to be the most accurate Sudan control maps available anywhere.

This edition of the map depicts control in early October 2023, based on research conducted through January of 2024. A map of control in December 2023 has been released to our paid subscribers, and we intend to publish another free edition soon showing the current situation in 2024.

Map by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic, starting from base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com. See article below for a detailed accounting of which groups are included in each territorial control category. To use this map in your own materials, please contact us to arrange permission.

Timeline by Djordje Djukic and Evan Centanni

Unknown Territory: Sudan’s New Civil War 

In April 2023, a new civil war broke out in Sudan (officially “the Sudan”)*, pitting the country’s official military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful government-affiliated paramilitary group. Sudan has fought more than one civil war before, but never in its traditional heartland along the River Nile. This new conflict is said to be the first in “at least a hundred years” where control of the capital city, Khartoum, is clearly in the balance. 

Unlike previous wars, the new conflict is essentially a power struggle among members of Sudan’s majority cultural group, the “Arab” people - and yet, analysts say it’s still a continuation of the long-running clash between the country’s central core and outer regions. The RSF’s leadership, and most of its fighters, come from the nomadic Arab communities of Sudan’s Darfur region in the west, who were integrated into Arab culture later in history than the Nile elites, and until recently held little power in the national government. (See below for further discussion of these and other conflict dynamics.)

With at least 13,000 dead as of December 2024, the war is also one of the deadliest in the world today, on par with the Myanmar conflict and only far-surpassed in 2023 by the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. Many thousands of civilians are among the dead, with the United Nations documenting indiscriminate SAF airstrikes in major cities, while also describing an apparent campaign of genocide by the RSF and allies against non-Arab citizens of West Darfur state.

Israel / Palestine: Map of Control After End of Truce (December 8, 2023)

There are newer editions of this map available. To see them, view all Israel articles or Palestine articles on PolGeoNow. 

This map shows the approximate situation on December 8, a week after Israel and Hamas resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip after a seven-day "humanitarian pause".

Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, incorporating base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com and data from B'Tselem's interactive mapping project. (Contact us for permission to use this map.)

Timeline by Djordje Djukic, with additional reporting by Evan Centanni

Gaza Strip Divided

Just as we were publishing the previous edition of our Israel/Palestine control map, Israel began its long-expected counter-invasion into the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, responding to hardline Palestinian group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 invasion of Israel. Now, one month into Israel's counter-invasion and two months into the war, the densely-populated Gaza Strip is divided between Hamas-led forces and the Israeli military. 

Israeli forces have seized large parts of Gaza City, the biggest population center in the densely-populated Strip, and completely surrounded the parts of it and nearby towns that are still under Hamas control. Meanwhile, since the temporary humanitarian ceasefire between Hamas and Israel ended a week ago, Israel has also pushed deep into the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis. For more information on control within the Gaza Strip, maps by online conflict-tracker Suriyak and ISW/Critical Threats give good detailed approximations.

Since our last report, Israel's military has appeared to confirm that it's killed at least about 5,000 Palestinian fighters and 10,000 Palestinian civilians, about ten times the respective numbers of Israeli soldiers and civilians killed by Hamas and allies in their brutal October 7 rampage through the Israeli countryside. This is roughly in line with estimates from the Hamas-affiliated Gaza Health Ministry, which as of Friday estimated a total of 17,000 Palestinians killed, about a third of them adult men (who are assumed to make up the vast majority of Hamas fighters).

Israel / Palestine: Map of Control Before Israel's Gaza Invasion (October 27, 2023)

There are newer editions of this map available. To see them, view all Israel articles or Palestine articles on PolGeoNow.

This map shows the approximate situation early on October 27, 2023, before Israel's announced expansion of military activity within the Gaza Strip. At the time of publication, it's still unclear whether the expected Israeli ground invasion has begun, and little is known of the current situation within the Strip.

Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, incorporating base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com and data from B'Tselem's interactive mapping project. (Contact us for permission to use this map.)

Timeline by Djordje Djukic, with additional reporting by Evan Centanni

2023 Israel-Hamas Control Map: Temporary Equilibrium

It's been almost three weeks since Palestinian group Hamas and allies burst unexpectedly out of the Gaza Strip, taking brief but unprecedented control over parts of Israel proper (see our map of the height of Hamas control). Israel's long-promised counter-invasion of the Strip may now be starting, two weeks after its military restored the lines of control to roughly the same as before the Hamas attack. But during the wait, there's been no end to violence: Israel has retaliated against Hamas with heavy bombing of that group's stronghold, the densely-populated Gaza Strip, while both Hamas in Gaza and allied Hezbollah in Lebanon have continued striking Israel with rockets and missiles launched across the borders. 

Israel reports that at least 1,400 of its people have been killed, including over 1,000 civilians - mostly in the first day of Hamas's October 7 invasion - while the Gaza Health Ministry says over 7,000 total Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed, about 3,000 of them under the age of 18 (the ministry is part of the Hamas-dominated government of the Gaza Strip, but is generally evaluated as credible by outside observers).

Israel / Palestine Map: Height of Hamas Control in 2023 Invasion (October 7, 2023)

There are newer editions of this map available. To see them, view all Israel articles or Palestine articles on PolGeoNow.

This map shows the approximate situation on the afternoon of October 7, 2023, when control by Hamas and its allies reached farthest into Israel. Now, several days later, Israeli forces are thought to have reversed almost all those gains, returning the lines of control to roughly their same positions as just before the invasion.

Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, incorporating base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com and data from B'Tselem's interactive mapping project. (Contact us for permission to use this map.)

Timeline by Djordje Djukic

2023 Israel-Hamas War: How much of Israel did Hamas Capture in its Invasion?

Last Saturday, just a day after the 50th anniversary of Israel's last full-scale war, the country was once again thrust into massive turmoil. In an unprecedented invasion of Israel proper, forces of hardline Palestinian party Hamas and smaller allied groups burst out of their stronghold in the Gaza Strip, briefly doubling their area of control while killing hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers alike. The above map shows the approximate situation at the height of Hamas and allied control, later on the same day that the invasion began.