Three Sudanese clubs will join the league in Rwanda this season in a bid to keep playing while the civil strife in their country negates any chance of normal sporting activity.

Sudan has been in the grip of conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, with more than 150,000 people killed and about 12 million uprooted, creating the largest displacement crisis in the world.

People who fled when the conflict erupted have started to return this year after Sudan's army retook the capital Khartoum, but the city’s two biggest clubs will continue their sporting exile with their old infrastructure badly damaged.

Last season Al Hilal and Al Merrikh were allowed to play in the league in Mauritania, on the other side of the continent, where they could stay active and keep up their club structures.

Now, along with Al Ahli Wad Madani, they have been given permission to join Rwanda’s league this season, the Rwanda Football Association said.

Continental competition

In July, Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, who between them have won all but four of the championships since Sudan's league was created in 1965, were home for a mini-tournament to decide who would compete in continental competition in the 2025-26 season.

The eight-team tournament was hosted away from the conflict in Ad-Damer, some 430 km from Khartoum, and Atbara, which is 320 km north of the capital, with Al Hilal and Al Merrikh dominating again and Al Ahli Wad Madani finishing third.

But a normal league is not possible amid the continuing conflict, leading to the request to play in nearby Rwanda.

Al Hilal have secured a place in the group phase of this season’s African Champions League with a 4-1 aggregate win over Police of Kenya. They won the ‘home’ leg of their second round tie 3-1 on Friday, which they hosted in Benghazi.

Libya has also served as the base for Sudan's national team, which will compete at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco at the end of the year despite not playing at home since March 2023.