By Olivier Jobard
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Sudan is experiencing what the United Nations now describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the Civil War passed its 1,000th day in January, U.N. agencies warned that more than 33 million people—nearly two‑thirds of the population—require humanitarian assistance, while around 14 million have been driven from their homes, the largest displacement emergency in the world.
Photographer Olivier Jobard documents the human cost of a conflict that has reshaped daily life across the country. His images move through spaces of mobilization and flight, showing how civilians navigate a war with few guarantees of safety.
The conflict erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al‑Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group rooted in the former Janjaweed militias. What began as a fight for control of the state has evolved into a nationwide war, splintering the country along shifting front lines and drawing civilians into its path. The toll is immense. Upward of 40,000 have been killed, the U.N. estimates, though the true number is believed far higher. More than 21 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine confirmed or looming in several regions. Accompanied by journalist Charles Emptaz, Jobard’s images offer quiet testimony to a war still unfolding.
Women-at-Arms
Below: In the capital Khartoum, the Sudanese Armed Forces proudly welcomes its 3,000 new recruits, including women, on December 15, 2025. The future female combatants take their oath upon entering service, shouting, “Allahu akbar.” After the loss of the Darfur region to the RSF in October 2025, the Sudanese Armed Forces mobilized for the new battle of Kordofan, a central and strategic region of Sudan.
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After the Fall
Below: Most of those sheltering in this camp in al-Dabbah, northern Sudan—pictured on December 5, 2025—fled el-Fasher, the capital of the Darfur region, after it was taken by the RSF in October 2025. Displaced people describe the city’s fall as the worst massacre in three decades. U.N. officials estimate only 40 percent of its residents managed to flee the onslaught. Survivors recount attacks along the 460‑mile journey to al-Dabbah, where new arrivals sleep in makeshift shelters while waiting for a tent.
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Bearing Wounds
Below: Safa Hassan, 38, recovers in Lubway, a village near el-Obeid, after surviving a drone strike by the RSF that killed 52 women and two children. Hassan, pictured on December 12, 2025, suffered severe burns to her arms and legs. The drone struck a Sudanese Armed Forces‑allied vehicle that had stopped beside a house where women were preparing food for a funeral.
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Armed Presence
Below: In Lubway, children walk on December 12, 2025, alongside a fighter from the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces and active around el‑Obeid.
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Close Quarters
Below: Jamila, a young girl, tries to sleep at the el-Obeid camp on December 9, 2025. Thousands of displaced people from nearby villages are crammed into a former bus station, having fled attacks by paramilitaries in the surrounding area. Water is the only service provided in the camp. For everything else, residents must fend for themselves. Parents and children take on menial jobs in the town to help them survive.
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Homecoming
Below: Troops from the Justice and Equality Movement return to el-Obeid from the front lines in northern Kordofan on December 10, 2025. The fighters are from a group that fought the power of former dictator Omar al-Bashir in the early 2000s. Initially neutral in the current war, JEM later aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces against the RSF, which have been accused of carrying out ethnic massacres in Darfur.
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Hope and Ruins
Below: A young child is pictured on December 15, 2025, walking past a building scarred by shelling in Khartoum’s Old Omdurman neighborhood, once the epicenter of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary forces. Though heavily damaged, the area has become home again to many residents, with around one million people returning to the capital, now back under Sudanese Armed Forces control.
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