Along with Gaza, Sudan is sliding into one of the gravest humanitarian catastrophes of our time. Since April 2023, war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has ravaged a nation of 45 million. Cities lie in ruins, famine is spreading, and more than 10 million people have been forced from their homes. Behind the images of bombed-out hospitals and displaced families is another danger: Islamist networks—rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood and fortified during Omar al-Bashir’s three decades in power—are re-entrenching themselves in the military and political establishment.

This is not only Sudan’s tragedy. Radical Islamism—distinct from mainstream Islam—poses a global security threat. Sudan’s geography is strategic: along the Red Sea and near the Suez Canal. State collapse risks creating havens for extremists, destabilizing neighbors, and disrupting vital trade routes. Allowing Islamist factions to hijack Sudan’s future would betray the Sudanese people and undermine international efforts to contain extremism and stabilize Africa and the Middle East.

Yet diplomacy has been halting and fragmented. The Jeddah talks produced signatures but no durable ceasefire. Regional organizations have struggled to act decisively, while global powers have pulled in different directions. Meanwhile, both the SAF and the RSF have continued to receive external backing, prolonging the war and magnifying civilian suffering.

What’s needed is a fundamental shift: hard pressure paired with genuine humanitarian action, and a political roadmap that centers civilians—not militias or Islamist proxies—in Sudan’s future.

There are concrete steps. The United Nations must assume a far more assertive role. First, the Security Council should impose—and rigorously enforce—a strengthened arms embargo on all parties. Satellite surveillance, tighter customs monitoring, and the public naming of violators are necessary to close the loopholes that keep weapons flowing. Second, the UN should prepare to deploy an international monitoring or peacekeeping presence—ideally with the African Union (AU)—to secure humanitarian corridors and oversee any ceasefire. Accountability must not wait: the UN should bolster fact-finding missions and cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes, including starvation tactics and ethnically targeted massacres.

The AU bears particular responsibility. This war is not merely internal; it threatens the continent. The AU must move beyond statements of concern to sustained, assertive diplomacy—convening a genuinely inclusive political process that gives civil society, women’s groups, and non-aligned community leaders real seats at the table. It must also coordinate with neighboring states to prevent spillover violence and support refugees with dignity. An African-led stabilization mission, backed by the UN, would add legitimacy and local ownership.

Europe, meanwhile, has direct interests at stake. Refugee flows, disruptions along the Red Sea, and the emergence of extremist safe havens will reverberate across the EU. Europe should lead on humanitarian financing—not only pledging aid but ensuring funds reach local organizations that can operate where large agencies cannot. It should also wield economic leverage to sanction Islamist financiers and networks sustaining the SAF. And it should use diplomatic channels with Gulf states, including Qatar, to press for an end to support for Islamist-aligned actors.

The international community has failed Sudan before. After Bashir’s fall in 2019, a chance to anchor a real democratic transition was squandered as the military clung to power and Islamist networks burrowed deeper into state institutions. Repeating that failure now will be measured in lives lost, a destabilized region, and a renewed surge of extremist ideology.

Sudan does not need another vague declaration of concern. It needs coordinated, concrete action: an enforced ceasefire; protection for civilians; sanctions on spoilers; and a political process that empowers those who rose for freedom in 2019. The UN, AU, and EU each have distinct, indispensable roles to play. The alternative is clear: a protracted war that spreads misery far beyond Sudan’s borders.

The time to act is now.