Sudan

UN relief chief Tom Fletcher held “useful” and “tough” discussions with the two sides battling for control of Sudan this week, pushing for access to aid for those in desperate need, he told journalists in New York on Monday. 

Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution for an independent fact-finding mission to investigate reported mass killings in al-Fashir, Sudan. At a special session of the Council in Geneva on the situation in the city in Darfur which fell to paramilitary forces in October, the text passed without a vote - a strong sign of international support.

[…] Escalating drone strikes and new deployments of troops and weapons by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army suggest both sides are now centring their efforts on Kordofan, a region comprised of three states that serves as a buffer between the RSF's western Darfur strongholds and the army-held states in the east.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for international action to cut off the supply of weapons to Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are accused of mass killings in el-Fasher. At the end of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada, Rubio said the RSF had committed systematic atrocities, including murder, rape and sexual violence against civilians.

Some 90,000 people have been displaced following the fall of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur - with another 50,000 fleeing violence in the Kordofans, according to the UN migration chief. “When people are coming out of the area, they are reporting widespread violence, sexual abuse, civilians who are sometimes being shot on sight,” said the Director General of the UN migration agency (IOM), Amy Pope, during a briefing on Wednesday.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces agreed to a proposal from the United States and Arab powers for a humanitarian ceasefire and is open to talks on a cessation of hostilities, it said on Thursday in a statement.

Satellite images analyzed Wednesday appear to show mass burials being conducted in el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized it, further raising concerns about the scale of the violence that descended on the city.

Sudan’s hunger crisis has deepened further, with new UN-backed analysis confirming that famine is underway in parts of Darfur and Kordofan, where fighting and sieges have cut off entire communities from food and aid. According to the latest IPC food security report, more than 21 million people across Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity – the largest such crisis in the world.

The Sudanese city of El Fasher — already under a devastating siege for more than 500 days amid the country’s raging conflict — has now descended into an “even darker hell” with profound civilian costs, two senior UN officials told the Security Council today, as delegates decried “shocking” and “horrific” crimes following the city’s capture by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

Republican and Democratic U.S. senators called for a strong response from President Donald Trump's administration after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized new territory in Sudan, reportedly attacking civilians.