Sudan Media Forum
By Malak Jamal Balla
KHARTOUM, October 13, 2025 – (Female Journalists Network) -In Sudan, carrying a weapon is no longer the sole province of the military or security forces; it has become a daily sight in markets, on streets, and in residential neighbourhoods.
Since the war erupted on April 15, 2023, guns have fallen into the hands of civilians, militias, and mobilized recruits, creating widespread chaos. This proliferation has cast a long shadow of fear and turmoil over the country, trapping citizens in a cycle of constant anxiety.
Sleeping to the sound of gunfire and waking to news of killings and lootings has become the new normal. Children have lost their sense of security, women fear venturing out alone, and young people live on a knife’s edge. It is a psychological toll that, as one resident puts it, “kills the spirit of life and plants despair.”
Daily terror in the heart of Khartoum
Omnia al-Gaddafi, a resident of southern Khartoum, says she returned to her home but no longer feels safe. “I feel scared when I see someone carrying a weapon because most of them are not in their right minds, and I don’t trust them,” she adds. “The spread of weapons has a psychological effect on citizens, especially those coming from safe areas, as the fear grows that one of the weapon bearers might recklessly open fire on people at any moment.”
She reveals that the issue extends beyond psychological terror to incidents of looting, murder, and rape at gunpoint in her area, with a wide presence of armed men, including youths and children under 18.
Journalist Ismail Hassabo documented his family’s suffering on social media. “My son says, ‘Daddy, the plane tormented me and wouldn’t let me sleep’,” he wrote. “He repeats this every morning at six.” Hassabo continued, “I rush to get him and his siblings into the inner room as the doors and windows shake so violently from the bombing they seem ready to be ripped from their frames… We moved multiple times, searching for safety away from the sounds of gunfire and warplanes, but the noise always followed. Our only choice is to keep fleeing with our children. They are the ones paying the highest price for this absurd war, and their only crime is being born in this country.”
Society loses its cohesion
Community activist Fadil Omar argues that the state’s failure to curb violence has fueled the spread of weapons, which have become a tool for settling scores. “In the past, disputes were resolved with words or the law,” he says. “Today, owning a gun is enough to turn a simple argument into a murder. A weapon shortens the distance between anger and death.” Omar notes that social conflicts that once ended through reconciliation are now settled with bullets, leading to widespread chaos and a pervasive loss of security.
According to Manal Mohamed Abdel Halim, a conflict specialist, the current crisis is not a recent phenomenon but the result of a long legacy of issues. These include weak and unprofessional military and security institutions; the legitimization of illegal militias as parallel forces; and government support for various armed movements since the 1970s. Combined with a thriving light arms trade, particularly in Darfur, she says these factors “paved the way for civilians to transform into armed groups outside of state control.”
“The spread of weapons among civilians leads to countless incidents, as 99% of those who carry them are men and youths who will readily use them over a minor dispute,” Abdel Halim says. She argues that collecting these weapons is a nearly impossible task, citing post-conflict disarmament failures in other countries—a challenge made even greater by the fragmentation of Sudan’s own military.
A humanitarian and security crisis
Human rights defender Salwa Absam Youssef warns that the spread of weapons poses a lasting threat to security, even after the fighting stops, calling it “the primary fuel for violence and crime.” The lack of transparency from regular forces in distributing weapons during the war, she adds, has made tracking or collecting them later nearly impossible.
Absam suggests learning from international experiences, such as South Africa, which offered financial incentives for handing over weapons. In El Salvador, there were awareness campaigns and incentives, and in Colombia, weapons were documented and monitored to prevent their return to the black market.
Lawyer Shaima Taj al-Sir notes that while Sudanese law strictly regulates and criminalises unlicensed firearm possession, the problem is a profound lack of enforcement. This proliferation, she explains, completely undermines the rule of law. “The laws exist,” al-Sir says, “but the culture of carrying a weapon has overpowered the culture of law.”
A frightening scenario: towards a state of militias
Lawyer Babiker warns that the proliferation of weapons will lead to the formation of armed groups outside the state’s framework, which will result in a “state of militias.” He cautions that some regions may demand secession or self-rule, becoming “small statelets governed by the tribe and the gun.”
Experts agree that the solution requires a comprehensive national policy for arms collection, anchored in the rule of law. This must include formal agreements for the disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) of militias, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that weapons are solely in the hands of state security forces like the army and police.
The proliferation of weapons remains the gravest challenge facing Sudan, both today and in any post-war future. A vacuum of law, weak state institutions, and the unchecked rise of militias have turned guns into common tools for killing, looting, and revenge. Genuine peace will be impossible until the state’s monopoly on violence is restored. This can only be achieved through a comprehensive strategy to disarm civilians, allowing citizens to finally regain their sense of security and turning Sudan’s streets back into places of life, not fear.
This report from the Female Journalists Network, published by the Sudan Media Forum, examines the alarming spread of weapons among civilians since the April 2023 war. It documents the resulting security collapse, the daily terror faced by citizens, and the rise of armed militias in the absence of state control. The report concludes by calling for a national strategy to disarm the public and restore government authority.
