In the two years since the simmering conflict between the generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted into war, Sudan has been on a downward spiral on many levels.

According to the United Nations, the country in northeastern Africa — rich in gold, oil and fertile grounds — has been plunged into one of the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crises. Of the population of 51 million, 64% now depend on humanitarian assistance and some 12 million have been displaced.

Sudanese women and girls have been particularly affected by the crisis, as they not only make up most of the displaced but also suffer from widespread sexual assault and gang rape.

Estimates on the death toll remain difficult due to ongoing fighting, but latest numbers by international aid organizations have jumped from around 40,000 to 150,000.

As the war enters its third year on April 15, the country increasingly risks being split into two rival administrations.

For Hager Ali, a researcher at the German think tank GIGA Institute for Global and Area Studies, this would limit the hope for an end to the violence even further.

"We have to look at a time horizon of 20 years or more. Sudan does not just need a peace deal, as the schisms between the center of the country and the periphery, ethnicities, religions and tribes have deepened," she told DW.

"Problems with federalism and the political system were also brewing for decades and will continue to sabotage peace, if not addressed."

In October 2021, a military coup led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and supported by his deputy and head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deposed Sudan's transitional government which was tasked with forming a

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