Since fighting erupted between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan a week ago, up to 20,000 have fled across the border from Darfur region into neighboring Chad. Darfur is the central stronghold of the RSF and has seen particularly heavy fighting, including renewed attacks on civilians. According to the UN Refugee Agency, the majority of the new arrivals in Chad are women and children, who are currently sheltering out in the open. Eastern Chad already hosts over 400,000 refugees from Sudan and the new arrivals are placing additional strain on the country's overstretched public services and resources. Fighting in Sudan has continued despite calls for an Eid ceasefire. (UNHCR, OCHA)

As fighting continues in Sudan, derailing a transition to democratic rule that was slated for this month, commentators are noting Russian connections to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that sparked the crisis by apparently attempting a coup d'etat on April 15. The Kremlin's notorious mercenary force, the Wagner Group, is said to be engaged in illegal gold mining operations in Darfur and Kordofan regions in collaboration with the RSF. Operations at a mine owned by RSF warlord Mohammed Hamdan Dagolo AKA "Hemeti" in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state have sparked protests by locals over land-grabbing and pollution. The arrangement points to a Kremlin-backed design to make the RSF economically independent of the Sudanese state in preparation for an eventual seizure of power.

Fierce clashes broke out April 15 between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with at least 56 civilians and dozens of fighters reported dead across Sudan. The fighting began in the capital Khartoum, as the RSF attempted to seize control of the presidential palace and international airport. The RSF was driven back from the airport with air-strikes. Fighting quickly spread to other cities, as the two forces attacked each other's installations and positions. The SAF claims to have taken the main Khartoum RSF base at Karari, as well as the paramilitary force's bases in the cities of Port Sudan, Kassala, Gedaref, Damazin, Kosti and Kadugli. (Al Jazeera, Radio Dabanga, Sudan Tribune, Jurist, PBS)

Armed clashes in Ethiopia's Amhara region this week left several people dead, including two Catholic Relief Services aid workers. Gun battles and mass protests broke out in a number of Amhara towns over the government's decision to absorb regional special forces into the police or national army. Some units of the security forces in Amhara—Ethiopia's second largest region—refused to disarm and resisted the federal military. Businesses closed and aid workers suspended operations.

Togo's National Assembly voted April 6 to extend a "state of security emergency" in the northern Savanes region of the country for another year. The measure follows a recent increase in incursions by militant groups along Togo's northern border. The measure is a further extension of President Faure Gnassingbé's initial state of emergency decreed in June 2022. The state of emergency was lengthened by six months in September 2022 but expired on March 12. The unanimous National Assembly vote authorizes the Togolese government to retroactively increase the measure for a further 12 months starting from March 13.

A panel of UN rights experts on April 3 named senior officials and military leaders in South Sudan who they say warrant criminal prosecution for their part in grave atrocities against civilians. A year-long investigation by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan details the involvement of both government and rebel leaders in widespread extrajudicial killings, as well as rape and sexual slavery.

The government of Ghana is rushing hundreds of army troops to the northern town of Bawku, where a long-simmering conflict between two ethnic groups over control of the local traditional chieftaincy has exploded into open warfare. The fighting began in December, when members of the Mamprugu people installed a "parallel" chief, refusing to recognize the incumbent chief from the Kusasi ethnicity. Since then, some 30 local residents have been slain—many civilians killed in ethnically targeted attacks.

Sudan's military and civilian factions have agreed to form a new transitional government on April 11, ending the deadlock that followed an October 2021 military coup. But consultations being held ahead of that date are proving thorny, especially on the sensitive subject of security sector reform. Pro-democracy groups want the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to be integrated into the Sudanese army, and for all troops to be placed under civilian authority. But the army and RSF both have economic interests and fear accountability should they be forced to reform. The two forces are also increasingly at odds with each other, with talks breaking down over a proposed timeline for integration. The army reportedly wants to fuse with the RSF in two years, while the RSF (which has up to 100,000 fighters) wants a decade. Open fighting between the two sides has been long feared, and reports suggest both are embarking on a recruitment race in the long-suffering western Darfur region.