Ask a 17-year-old in Darfur why she did not sit her school-leaving exam this year, and she will not mention an American ceasefire text. The exam was held only in territory the army controls. Ask a shopkeeper in Nyala why the banknotes in his drawer became worthless overnight, or a father in Kordofan why his newborn has no birth certificate, and the answer is the same: not a truce, but a decision by the SAF-appointed authorities in the middle of a war.

Sudan is living through a de facto partition. Its territory is divided between two armed forces, each of which has built its own governing authority. Society is fractured along ethnic lines, and both sides recruit on that basis. Hate speech and open calls for secession are heard on both sides. The army-appointed administration’s decisions on education, currency, and identity documents have hardened these divisions. The rival administration’s parallel steps have driven them deeper.