Sudan

More than a million people have returned to Sudan’s war-ravaged capital in the past ten months, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday, warning that basic services remain shattered amid continuing disease outbreaks.

The European Union warned on Monday that Sudan’s unity is at “serious risk” from its ongoing conflict and said it was ready to impose further sanctions on those responsible. In a statement following a meeting of its foreign ministers, the EU council condemned the conflict and placed “primary responsibility” for ending it on the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A series of drone attacks targeted the Sudanese capital Khartoum for multiple hours on Wednesday, eyewitnesses and an army source told AFP. A military official said the army had shot down “most of the drones,” which targeted two army bases in the capital’s northwest.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday condemned in the strongest terms the continued killing and injuring of civilians in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher. This follows reports that at least 53 civilians were killed and more than 60 injured by members of the Rapid Support Forces militia, the RSF, between 5 and 8 October alone.

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Monday to extend its fact-finding mission in Sudan for one year, allowing investigators to continue documenting atrocities in the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Two decades after the scorched-earth campaign that left hundreds of thousands dead in Sudan’s Darfur, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has delivered its first conviction linked to the conflict, finding Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman “Ali Kushayb”, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in Sudan has warned of an impending catastrophe in Darfur, with civilians facing relentless violence, sexual abuse and starvation. All this, while aid convoys remain blocked from reaching hundreds of thousands trapped close to the frontlines and as the military government and their rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia battle for control of Sudan.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday warned that civilians in Sudan’s El Fasher face the imminent risk of large-scale atrocities, as fighting intensifies around the regional capital of North Darfur, besieged for more than 500 days by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. … Reports of the RSF deploying long-range drones in South Darfur have heightened fears of an escalation in the coming days.

A drone strike by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher has killed 75 people worshipping in a mosque, first responders have said, as the group continued its push to capture the last foothold of Sudan’s army in the Darfur region. 

The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt called on Friday for a three-month humanitarian truce in Sudan followed by a permanent ceasefire, the countries said in a joint statement. The so-called "Quad" countries are seen as having the most influence with the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have fought a devastating war that has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis and spread famine.