Sudan

.

The United Nations has warned that Sudan is now home to the largest child displacement crisis in the world, with a staggering 3 million children forced to flee widespread violence.

Violence against civilians in Sudan is “verging on pure evil”, a senior United Nations official [Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan] has warned, after nearly seven months of war has left a wave of destruction with at least half the population in need of humanitarian aid.

Thousands of people have been forced to flee the Sudanese region of West Dafur amid fears of ethnic cleansing, a medical charity says. Witnesses have accused the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of targeting and killing non-Arabs, with reports of hundreds of deaths.

Sudan's warring parties have made no progress towards a ceasefire in their latest talks, instead reiterating past agreements to improve access to humanitarian aid, host Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed alarm on Friday over reports that in Sudan, women and girls are being abducted, chained and held in “inhuman, degrading slave-like conditions” in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday warned Sudan’s paramilitary force against what Washington said were signs of an “imminent large-scale attack” in North Darfur’s capital where thousands have fled fighting.

The United Nations has welcomed the resumption of talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to end the months-long conflict between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary force which lefts scores dead and sent the northeast African country spiraling into humanitarian crisis.

Sudan's army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said they will return to the U.S.- and Saudi-convened negotiations in Jeddah on Thursday, as a six-month war has taken its toll on the country and on both forces.

Janjaweed leader Ali Abd-Al-Rahman's defense team is set to make their opening statements on October 19. Human rights lawyers say justice is necessary to end the ongoing conflict in Sudan.