Satellite imagery reveals the systematic destruction of Sudan's agricultural heartland, with the country's fertile central plains — once known as its "breadbasket" — reduced from vibrant green grids to barren brown expanses during nearly three years of civil war.
An Al Jazeera digital investigation using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery shows devastating damage to Sudan's largest irrigated farming projects in the central states of Gezira, Sennar, and Khartoum. The analysis exposes a direct correlation between military control and agricultural collapse, with implications stretching far beyond Sudan's borders.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary captured key agricultural areas in late 2023, triggering systematic destruction of farming infrastructure. After the RSF seized Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira state, in December 2023, wheat production in the region plummeted by 58 percent during the 2023-2024 season.
The Gezira Scheme, spanning 924,000 hectares between the Blue and White Nile Rivers with more than 8,000 kilometres of canals, historically produced half of Sudan's wheat before the war began on April 15, 2023. The conflict erupted following a power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Satellite data reveals the scale of agricultural devastation during RSF control throughout 2024. In the town of Abu Quta in northern Gezira state, RSF fighters equipped with heavy machine guns looted markets, the local police station, and the agricultural bank in December 2023. Desperate farmers responded by flooding their own irrigation canals, sacrificing crops to create mud traps that would halt the RSF's heavily armed pickup trucks.
The economic impact on farming communities proved severe. Hussein Saad, a former farmer and member of the Gezira and Al-Managil Farmers Alliance, reported that:
"the cost of a 50kg bag of fertiliser skyrocketed from 20,000 Sudanese pounds ($33) to 120,000 ($200), while tractor rental prices tripled"
Similar devastation occurred throughout the agricultural zones under RSF control during 2024.
The humanitarian toll reached catastrophic levels, with 25.6 million people — half of Sudan's population — facing acute food insecurity, including 755,000 in catastrophic famine conditions.
Military control patterns directly determined agricultural recovery. The SAF recaptured Singa in Sennar state in November 2024, followed by Wad Madani in January 2025. The army declared full control of Khartoum state in May 2025.
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Satellite data from late 2025 showed notable improvement in crop health across the affected schemes, with the return of geometric green grids indicating farmers cautiously resumed planting. By late 2025, 3.4 million people were no longer in crisis-level food insecurity, with the improvement attributed to gradual stabilisation in Gezira, Sennar, and Khartoum following RSF withdrawal.
Industrial infrastructure suffered parallel destruction. Sudan's Minister of Industry Mahasin Ali Yagoub stated that:
"126 large industrial facilities and 3,131 small factories in Gezira state alone were severely damaged"
High-resolution satellite imagery reveals widespread destruction of industrial zones, with Khartoum's facilities showing no tangible signs of recovery even after coming under army control.
The regional implications extend across the Horn of Africa. Sudan's agricultural collapse affects food security throughout the region, with potential impacts on grain markets and refugee flows into neighbouring countries including Ethiopia. The systematic destruction of irrigation infrastructure in what was once a regional breadbasket demonstrates how conflict can rapidly transform food-producing regions into sources of humanitarian crisis.
Satellite analysis using Khartoum state as a "control group" definitively ruled out climate factors as the cause of agricultural collapse. Despite sharing the same climate zone as Gezira, Khartoum's agricultural projects showed no significant recovery even after coming under army control, proving that security alone is insufficient — farmers need full seasons of stability to repair canals, source seeds, and harvest crops.
The data exposes a stark pattern: catastrophic agricultural collapse during RSF control in 2024, followed by fragile, limited recovery after the SAF regained territory in 2025. While geometric green grids are slowly returning to some regions, the scars of damaged infrastructure remain visible from space — a testament to how quickly war can push an agricultural heartland to the brink of starvation.
For the millions of Sudanese who depend on these lands for survival, the satellite imagery tells a story of systematic destruction and tentative recovery, with implications that ripple across regional food security networks throughout the Horn of Africa.
