As Sudan enters the fourth year of its civil war, Khartoum is grappling with a severe crisis over the handling of the dead. During two years of occupation by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country since April 2023 — residents were forbidden from burying their dead openly, forcing families to inter bodies in secret within mosques, schools, and home courtyards; a mass grave discovered at the campus of the International University of Africa alone contained between 3,000 and 4,000 bodies, including children. Now, with only one of Khartoum's five morgues operational, forensic teams are overwhelmed — lacking ambulances, body bags, and refrigeration — while Sudanese authorities estimate that some 15,000 makeshift graves remain scattered across the capital's streets.