While the war in Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinians rightly command global attention, the world seems tragically indifferent to an even more catastrophic conflict unfolding in northeast Africa — one that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has reached a turning point following the capture of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It took control of the city on October 26, following the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Both have been involved in a deadly standoff since April 2023. The victory has given the RSF control of all five state capitals in Darfur, which has led many analysts to suggest that the war-torn nation is likely to be partitioned along an east-west axis. In the immediate aftermath, reports of large-scale atrocities and a deepening humanitarian crisis have sparked widespread international condemnation and renewed alarm that the war is spiralling violently out of control.
El Fasher had already suffered immense devastation, including famine, indiscriminate shelling, and drone strikes. The city has been under blockade for more than a year. The fall of the city has ushered in what many humanitarian observers describe as a new phase of terror. Aid agencies and witnesses describe widespread sexual violence, summary executions, and mass killings of civilians.
Notably, nearly 500 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital–the only health facility still partially functioning in the city–which had previously survived repeated shelling. Furthermore, research from the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale has identified evidence of mass killings in the wake of the takeover, including apparent pools of blood visible in satellite imagery.
A deeply troubling element of the post-takeover phase is the alleged effort by the RSF to conceal the scale of the slaughter. The Yale lab says the RSF has begun digging mass graves and sweeping up corpses across the city; as one researcher put it, they are “cleaning up the massacre”. Experts stress that the death toll in El Fasher over a ten-day period could potentially surpass the fatalities recorded in the past two years of the Gaza war. What is clear is that thousands of civilians remain trapped inside, facing starvation, disease, and violence.
Amid these documented atrocities, the RSF and its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), have sought to minimise the violence, attributing many of the crimes to allied armed groups. Dagalo himself promised an investigation. But observers argue that the RSF cannot be trusted to conduct an impartial inquiry into its own conduct. They say a credible investigation requires the RSF to withdraw and allow unfettered access to the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and independent humanitarian agencies to assess the full extent of the damage and to verify who is still alive.
The broader military conflict, driven in part by Hemedti’s political ambitions, has created what many regard as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century. Prior to the RSF’s capture of El Fasher, the 18-month siege meant that neither sufficient aid nor functioning healthcare services were available. Hundreds of thousands are now dying from malnutrition, disease, and violence. Since the takeover, over 70,000 people have fled the city and nearby areas; the International Organization for Migration estimates that at least 62,000 were displaced late last month alone. At least 1.5 lakh people have been killed and more than 1.2 crore displaced since April 2023. In El Fasher, doctors are forced to feed malnourished children animal fodder.
In response to the escalating crisis, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared the war to be spiralling out of control and called for an immediate halt to the fighting. While international condemnation has been strong–from the UN Security Council to members of the US Congress–effective action remains elusive. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have begun collecting evidence of mass killings, rape, and other alleged crimes in El Fasher.
Diplomatic efforts, often coordinated through the so-called “Quad” (the United States, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt), have struggled to secure a meaningful truce. Proposed peace plans generally envisage an initial three-month humanitarian pause followed by a nine-month transition to civilian rule. Yet the SAF maintains firm resistance to these plans, insisting that any ceasefire must be conditional on the RSF withdrawing from cities, including El Fasher. Meanwhile, the Sudanese ambassador to the UK emphasised that the priority was not to negotiate a ceasefire while the massacres continue, asking what use talks are when atrocities are still being committed.
More widely, the conflict has become a high-stakes arena for regional and international powers, given Sudan’s strategic location linking the Red Sea, the Sahel, and central Africa, and its valuable resources, notably gold. The European Union, one of the largest humanitarian donors to Sudan, has allocated €270 million for the crisis response.