Water Wars: How Sudan’s Conflict Weaponizes a Basic Human Need

4 August 2025

Warfare in Sudan over the last two years has seen many attacks on water sources and infrastructure – and civilians are paying the heaviest price. Our latest IHL in Focus Spot Report, Weaponizing Water and Humanitarian Collapse in Sudan: An International Humanitarian Law Assessment, reveals how the targeting of water infrastructure is contributing to what is now considered the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, affecting 30 million people. Using satellite imagery, humanitarian reports and public statements, this report shows how these tactics are not just brutal – they are clear violations of international humanitarian law.

From scarcity to siege: water as weapon and crisis

Since April 2023, the non-international armed conflict in Sudan has weaponized water in two ways. First, as a deliberate military tactic, particularly by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have seized control of reservoirs, destroyed treatment plants, and cut water access to major urban centres and displacement camps. Second, as a humanitarian emergency – the collapse of water systems has triggered cholera outbreaks, famine conditions, and mass displacement, exacerbating already dire public health crises.

Key findings:

• Targeted destruction: The RSF has seized or disabled major water sources in North Darfur – notably the Golo and Shagra reservoirs – cutting off access to over 270,000 people.
• Siege tactics with ethnic dimensions in Darfur: In El Geneina and El Fasher, RSF forces have used water denial as part of broader attacks against non-Arab populations, including pillage, sexual violence, and targeted killings.
• Nationwide infrastructure collapse: Sudanese armed forces (SAF) airstrikes and RSF drone attacks on power stations have blacked out essential systems across Khartoum, Omdurman, Port Sudan and Atbara, severely disrupting water treatment and medical facilities.
• Cascade of suffering: the collapse of WASH systems has led to over 83,000 cholera cases, more than 2,100 deaths from cholera, and famine declarations in multiple regions.
• Regional impact: the water-related humanitarian crisis is reverberating across Sudan’s borders – from Uganda to Chad – where refugees now face critical water shortages and heightened disease risk.

 International humanitarian law under attack

The report identifies clear violations of Article14 of Additional Protocol II, which prohibits using starvation as a method of combat and protects objects indispensable to civilian survival, including water infrastructure. The deliberate targeting and seizure of water sources represents systematic violations of these protections, not collateral damage. The US Department of State has already determined that RSF members have committed genocide, while the ICC Prosecutor is finalizing arrest warrant applications for past atrocities. Yet, accountability remains limited. The ICC’s jurisdiction covers only Darfur, leaving crimes in other regions unprosecuted.

The report makes a particular call for an end to the tendency to interpret IHL in isolation from the broader normative frameworks that govern environmental protection and human rights. This holistic approach is reinforced by the International Court of Justice’s recent advisory opinion on climate change, which dispels the notion that applying a specific set of rules means that broader, more general legal obligations no longer matter or apply. Although the Court did not refer to international humanitarian law, its reasoning—rejecting the idea that climate and environmental treaty obligations displace general international law—suggests that a similar interpretative approach could apply to the relationship between IHL and duties of states under general international environmental law. In Sudan, attacks on water don’t just violate IHL – they breach the human right to water and cause environmental harms with transboundary effects. Only through this integrated legal framework can the full scope of water weaponization be effectively addressed.

Beyond legal frameworks: the enforcement gap

The report calls for urgent action by the international community to close this enforcement gap:

• Expanded accountability mechanisms: Extend ICC jurisdiction from Darfur to all of Sudan, and create a special independent judicial mechanism to complement ICC efforts.
• Stopping the flow of weapons: Implement a comprehensive arms embargo across Sudan and require all states to investigate weapons exports to conflict parties
• Deployment of protection forces: Send international civilian protection forces to besieged areas like El Fasher and Zamzam camp.
• Ensuring humanitarian access: Guarantee safe passage for agencies providing emergency water services and WASH support.

As Sudan's conflict demonstrates how survival needs become weapons of territorial control, the international response will determine whether water weaponization becomes a normalized tactic of modern warfare. Without decisive action, water will continue to kill silently – through thirst, disease, and starvation – not just in Sudan, but wherever conflicts exploit humanity's most basic need.

Read the report here