Sudan’s civil war broke out on April 15, 2023. The violent conflict has pitted the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan's transitional Sovereign Council.
Initially erupting in Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, before becoming a full-fledged civil war in the entire Northeastern African nation, the civil war has reportedly resulted in the death of “as many as one hundred and fifty thousand people”. More than 14 million people have been displaced, including to unstable countries such as Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, where they have reportedly overrun refugee camps.
With over 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid, the country has reportedly the highest number of people in need ever recorded; the highest number of internally displaced globally, more than 12 million having fled violence in the country in the last 24 months.
The country has also the highest number of people in emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger, “with over 600,000 people living in famine, and 8 million others on the cliff edge”, according to an April 2025 report.
In his Sunday, June 15 Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV also expressed spiritual solidarity with the victims of violent attacks in a Nigerian State, where “a terrible massacre took place in the city of Yelwata, located in the local administrative area of Gouman, in the state of Benue.”
The Holy Father noted that “around two hundred people were killed with extreme cruelty” during the deadly attack that occurred on the night between Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14.
“The majority of those killed were internally displaced people who were being housed at a local Catholic mission. I pray that security, justice, and peace prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country that has suffered various forms of violence,” the Pope said.
He offered special prayers for the “rural Christian communities in the state of Benue, who have unceasingly been victims of violence.”
Insecurity remains rife in Nigeria, where kidnappings, murder, and other forms of persecution—particularly against Christians—are widespread in many regions, especially in the north.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV also reflected on the life of the Servant of God Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, a native of the Catholic Diocese of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) whom he beatified on Sunday, June 15.
