UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that Sudan’s war is veering beyond containment, urging an immediate ceasefire after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized the Darfur city of El Fasher. Speaking at a summit in Qatar, he said hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped by an 18-month siege that starved the city of food and medicine, and he cited credible reports of executions, rampant hunger, disease, and continued violations of humanitarian law.
“Silence the guns, open the roads.”
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What we Know
UN officials have raised alarms about a violent sweep by RSF fighters following last week’s takeover of El Fasher, including reports of mass killings inside a hospital, ethnically targeted attacks on civilians, and sexual violence. The RSF denies committing atrocities, but testimony from fleeing residents, videos posted online, and satellite imagery point to a devastated city where the full scope of the damage is still unclear amid communications outages.
Guterres said the priority is to stop the shooting and stop the flow of weapons into Sudan. He called for coordinated pressure from states with leverage over the warring parties and for mechanisms that can hold perpetrators to account. Asked about peacekeepers, he stressed that any international response must begin with unified diplomacy to force a halt to the fighting and to reopen humanitarian access.
The conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces has torn through the country since April 2023. UN figures put the death toll at more than 40,000, though aid agencies say the real number could be far higher. Over 14 million people have been driven from their homes, disease outbreaks are spreading, and two regions are already in famine with risks of wider collapse if access corridors remain closed.
El Fasher’s fall caps months of encirclement that cut off most supplies to a city already hosting waves of displaced families. Humanitarian teams warn that without security guarantees and sustained corridors, even basic relief – food rations, trauma care, clean water – cannot reach those in greatest need. For now, the picture is of a war metastasizing: a besieged city taken by force, civilians caught in the middle, and a relief system throttled just as demand peaks.
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“The carnage must stop,” Guterres said, urging the RSF and the army to return to talks and commit to an enforceable ceasefire. Whether that call can translate into pressure on commanders in the field will determine if El Fasher becomes a turning point, or just another milestone in a spiraling crisis.
