The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood talks through the pomp and the politics of the conclave: the process to elect Pope Francis’s successor

On Wednesday, 133 cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to select the next pope.

It is called the conclave and it is one of the oldest election processes in the world. For days – perhaps even weeks – the cardinals in Rome will vote again and again until one candidate wins a two-thirds majority. Then, and only then, will they be named as the successor to Pope Francis.

Guardian journalist Kaamil Ahmed reports on the devastating assault by the Rapid Support Forces on the camp in Darfur and what it tells us about the group’s plans in Sudan’s civil war

Zamzam, in Darfur, has been a place of refuge for decades. A sprawling camp in western Sudan, some have estimated that it houses up to 700,000 people – a place of relative safety from the violence that has engulfed the region over the last 20 years.

It was also one of the last holdouts in Darfur, one of the few places in the region not yet under the control of the Rapid Support Forces. The paramilitary group has fought a devastating civil war with the Sudanese army since April 2023.