UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the war in Sudan is spiraling out of control and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and violence.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which reportedly receive backing from the United Arab Emirates, seized the city of El Fasher in Darfur last week after nearly 18 months under siege. Some fighters posted videos showing summary executions of civilians, including inside the city’s maternity hospital.
The two-year confrontation between Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF has, by the UN’s estimate, produced one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 21st century. More than 150,000 people have been killed, and over 14 million have been forced from their homes.
A satellite image shows smoke rising from fires near El Fasher airport.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Monday that it is gathering evidence of mass killings, rapes and other crimes committed in El Fasher.
Guterres urged the parties to the conflict “to come to the negotiating table and put an end to this nightmare of violence—now.” “The horrific crisis in Sudan is spinning out of control,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the World Summit on Social Development in Qatar.
In his words, “El Fasher and the surrounding areas of North Darfur have become the epicenter of suffering, hunger, violence and forced displacement. Since RSF forces entered the city, the situation has worsened by the day. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped by the siege. People are dying from malnutrition, disease and violence.”
His statement in Doha came as the SAF leadership, based in Port Sudan, weighed whether to support a U.S.-proposed cease-fire or to insist it take effect only after the RSF withdraws from Sudanese cities, including El Fasher.
The fall of El Fasher has given the RSF control over all five provincial capitals of Darfur, heightening fears that Sudan could effectively split into eastern and western regions. However, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Babikir Elamin, said the idea of partition finds no support within Darfur itself.
He said the priority should not be a cease-fire but an end to the mass killings in El Fasher.
Since September, the United States has been trying to persuade the parties to accept a peace plan brokered by Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It envisions a three-month humanitarian pause, followed by a permanent cease-fire and a nine-month transition to civilian government.
Washington hopes that rising international attention to the two-year war will push the warring parties and their external backers to soften their positions. However, judging by the outcome of an extended meeting of SAF’s security and defense council, there remains strong resistance within the army to the U.S. plan crafted by Donald Trump’s special representative for African affairs, Massad Boulos.