Sudan: UN warns of deepening humanitarian crisis, calls for blockade of arms

UN Secretary-general has voiced profound alarm over emerging reports of mass atrocities and severe human rights violations in Sudan’s El-Fasher, as well as over intensifying violence across the Kordofan region.

Antonio Guterres urged, in a statement on his X account, an immediate halt to the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and called for an urgent blockade on the inflow of external weapons and fighters. He emphasized the need for rapid humanitarian access to protect civilians trapped in the escalating conflict and appealed to both sides to pursue meaningful negotiations to stem further deterioration.

The crisis deepened after the RSF seized El-Fasher on October26, with local and international organizations reporting massacres and warning that the takeover risks entrenching Sudan’s de facto partition. Fighting has since spread across central and southern Kordofan, while the RSF now controls nearly all of Darfur, save for small pockets in North Darfur. The Army maintains control of most other regions, including Khartoum. The conflict, which erupted in April 2023, has already claimed thousands of lives and uprooted millions, driving Sudan towards an increasingly perilous humanitarian abyss.