Sudan war sparks global alarm after reports of mass killings
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Sudanese Rapid Support Forces purportedly detaining a fighter in El-Fasher, in the war-torn country’s western Darfur region.
PHOTO: AFP
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EL-FASHER, Sudan - World leaders called for renewed talks to halt the war in Sudan as reports emerged of widespread atrocities in a city recently captured by a paramilitary group fighting the army-backed government.
Since seizing El-Fasher in western Sudan on Oct 26, the Rapid Support Forces has been accused of executing hundreds of people, while about 30,000 civilians have fled the famine-hit capital of North Darfur state.
Sudan’s deputy commissioner of humanitarian aid Mona Nour Al-Daem on Oct 29 said about 2,000 people have been killed in El-Fasher since the RSF entered the city. The capture after a year-long siege marks a major advance for the group in a civil war that has raged on since April 2023.
Mr Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the RSF, said in a speech on Oct 29 he would form an investigation committee to probe what happened.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas and Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib urged “all parties to immediately de-escalate” the violence in El-Fasher, which they said “marks a dangerous turning point in the war and threatens to further worsen the already dire humanitarian situation”.
“Civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity underscore the brutality” of the RSF, they said.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was shocked by reports that 460 people at a hospital in El-Fasher had been killed in fighting and called for an immediate ceasefire.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab released satellite imagery
The US sanctioned the head of the RSF in January, after determining the group was guilty of genocide.
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “deeply alarmed” by the continued flow of weapons and fighters into Sudan.
Mr Javid Abdelmoneim, the president of Medecins Sans Frontières, described the situation as “horrific”.
Two weeks prior to the unfolding events in El-Fasher, US officials including presidential adviser Massad Boulos met in Cairo with Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to discuss dropping sanctions and possible investment in Sudan’s mineral sector in exchange for his commitment to a peace deal, diplomats with knowledge of the meeting earlier in October said.
The engagement, which was not made public, came after repeated failed attempts over the course of the past two years by numerous countries to forge a peace deal and bring the warring parties together for talks.
A spokesperson for the US State Department did not immediately respond to questions about the meeting.
The United Arab Emirates, accused of backing the RSF – an allegation it denies – is facing renewed calls to disengage as fighting intensifies.
“I am sickened by the images of the RSF seizing El-Fasher in Sudan. The UAE needs to cease their support,” US congresswoman Sara Jacobs wrote on X on Oct 28.
“The Trump Administration needs to invest in a real peace process that is not rigged to benefit external backers of this horrific war.”
A UAE government official said the Gulf nation has called for a three-month humanitarian truce as part of its membership of the so-called Quad, which includes the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The four countries met in Washington on Oct 24 alongside representatives from both warring parties, though no solution was found, the official said on Oct 30 in response to a request for comment.
“We categorically reject any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war, and condemn atrocities committed by both Port Sudan Authority and RSF,” the official said.
At least 150,000 people have died in the Sudan war, according to a US estimates made in 2024, though that number is now expected to be much higher. BLOOMBERG
