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Civil War in Sudan

Funding Cuts Imperil UN Food Aid

  • The UN’s World Food Programme announced that shortages in funding will force it to curb humanitarian aid in Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of civilians face an acute hunger crisis (Reuters)

Drone Strike on Heglig Oilfield

  • Sudan’s military launched the drone strike on the oil processing facility one day after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured it, leading to dozens of deaths, including South Sudanese soldiers who were sent into Sudan following the RSF capture (AP)
  • The threats to Heglig have spurred concerns in Juba, which depends entirely on Sudan’s pipeline network to export oil (Al Jazeera)
  • Following the capture of Heglig, nearly four thousand Sudanese troops fled into South Sudan and surrendered their weapons, with thousands of civilians also crossing the border (The National)
  • Separately, a Sudanese army aircraft crashed while attempting to land at an airbase in the east of the country, killing all crew members (AFP)

ICC Sentences Darfur Militia Leader to Twenty Years in Prison

  • The International Criminal Court issued the prison term to Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman for directing and personally carrying out atrocities in Darfur, marking the court’s first completed trial related to the conflict (BBC)
  • Separately, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said recent Rapid Support Forces (RSF) advances could spark a new mass civilian flight, including into neighboring countries like Chad, which has already struggled to coordinate large arrivals of Sudanese refugees (Reuters; Al Jazeera)
  • The United States today issued sanctions on a network of entities recruiting Colombian mercenaries to support the RSF (Treasury)

RSF Claims Control Over Heglig Oilfield

  • The oilfield houses the central processing facility for Sudanese and South Sudanese crude and was the Sudanese army’s last major position in western and eastern Kordofan, underscoring its strategic importance (Reuters; Al Jazeera)
  • South Sudanese officials suggested that oil continued to flow despite the RSF capture (Bloomberg)
  • Meanwhile, RSF drone strikes killed over one hundred people, including sixty-three children, near a kindergarten and hospital, according to the World Health Organization (BBC)

SAF Accused of Strike on Chadian Border

  • RSF forces said its SAF adversaries employed drones in an attack on the Adikon Gate border crossing between Chad and Sudan, a key conduit for humanitarian aid in the region (Al Jazeera)

RSF Drone Strike Kills Dozens in Kordofan

  • The strike hit a kindergarten, killing fifty people, including thirty-three children, and was followed by additional strikes on paramedics and a nearby civilian site, as the UN warns that Kordafan may face atrocities similar to those that occurred last month in El Fasher (AP)

Rubio Affirms Bid for Sudan Peace

  • U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated claims that the Trump administration is the “only” world actor prepared to reach a peace deal in Sudan after officials announced quadrilateral regional negotiations with Abu Dhabi, Cairo, and Riyadh (Al Jazeera)

UN Warns of Potential for Mass Atrocities in Kordofan

  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that Sudan’s Kordofan region could face mass atrocities as fighting intensifies between the RSF and SAF troops in the region; Türk’s announcement echoes previous warnings during the siege of el-Fasher, the end of which saw widespread atrocities perpetrated by RSF forces against civilians in the city (Al Jazeera)

Amnesty Accuses RSF of War Crimes

  • The accusation cites killings, rapes, and destruction of civilian infrastructure during the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) April attack on the Zamzam displacement camp near el-Fasher, while also criticizing the United Arab Emirates for allegedly continuing to support the RSF; the report follows a similar Amnesty allegation of RSF war crimes last month (Amnesty)

RSF Claims to Have Taken Babanusa, SAF Denies Claim

  • The RSF claims to have captured Babanusa, a transport junction in West Kordofan state (Reuters)
  • The SAF has refuted this claim, saying that it repelled the RSF attack on the city and that the battle is still ongoing (Al Jazeera)

Amnesty International Accuses RSF of War Crimes

  • Amnesty International said the Rapid Support Forces carried out executions, sexual violence, and mass abductions after overrunning el-Fasher, citing survivor testimony that described killings in the streets and ransom-taking (AP)
  • Separately, Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati official, welcomed the joint U.S.-Saudi push for a ceasefire, as humanitarian groups continue accusing the United Arab Emirates of fueling the conflict (Reuters)

RSF Announces Three-Month Unilateral Ceasefire

  • The announcement came after the Sudanese army rejected a truce plan backed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States on Sunday, calling it biased; the RSF had agreed to comply with the truce earlier this month, but resumed drone strikes soon thereafter (Al Jazeera)

Malnutrition Kills Children as Famine Deepens

  • Doctors reported that twenty-three children died of hunger-related causes in the Kordofan region over a single month, blaming siege conditions and shortages of food and medicine as conflict in Sudan pushes millions closer to famine (AP)

EU Sanctions on Senior RSF Leader

  • The European Union imposed travel and asset restrictions on Abdel-Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the Rapid Support Forces, citing his role in violations by his troops in Darfur, as Brussels said it would escalate pressure on both sides of the war (AP)
  • Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper also told lawmakers that she had directed officials to prepare punitive measures in response to abuses in Sudan (Reuters)

U.S. Mediation in Sudan

  • The United States will step up efforts to mediate an end to Sudan’s war after a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump said; the United States has backed a truce proposal that Sudanese paramilitaries agreed to earlier this month, but the Sudanese government did not (ABC)

Sentencing Hearing for Darfur Militia Leader

  • Prosecutors urged the International Criminal Court to impose life imprisonment on Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, following his conviction in October on dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity charges tied to Janjaweed abuses in Darfur (Reuters)

UN Backs Investigation into El Fasher Atrocities

  • The UN Human Rights Council unanimously backed an independent investigation into reports of mass killings in El Fasher; the new inquiry is charged with identifying the perpetrators of the massacres, and the findings could be shared with the International Criminal Court (BBC)
  • During a phone call with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged the United Arab Emirates to push for a ceasefire and raised concerns about weapons reaching the Rapid Support Forces (Reuters)

RSF Moving East in New Offensive

  • Reports of drone strikes and troop deployments marked the start of a new RSF offensive in the Kordofan region; the SAF said the RSF launched drones at an army headquarters, an airport, and a dam (DW)
  • The RSF advanced into the area after overcoming resistance outside El Fasher, seizing the town of Bara in North Kordofan, where survivors reported revenge attacks and summary executions of those accused of supporting SAF (Reuters)
  • As fighting escalates, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said humanitarian operations are unable to keep pace with the scale of displacement; its Sudan appeal has secured less than a tenth of the required funding, while many areas of refuge remain inaccessible to aid workers (New Arab)

UN Reports Nearly Ninety Thousand Civilians Fled El Fasher

  • According to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around eighty-nine thousand civilians have fled El Fasher since the RSF captured the city in late October; some are seeking refuge in neighboring Chad, where the situation is still desperate as they receive water rations below emergency standards (UN News)

RSF Accepts Ceasefire Proposal

  • The proposal was put forth by the United States and Arab countries (Reuters)
  • The Sudanese army, the RSF’s opponent in the country’s two-year civil war, said that it was committed to defeating the RSF by force; several previous attempts to mediate an end to the war have failed (NYT)

Mass Graves in El Fasher

  • Commercial satellite imagery showed large burial sites being dug and covered in the city following its capture, while reports said a drone strike on a funeral elsewhere killed at least forty people and deepened fears over the scale of civilian losses (AP)

United States Advocating for Humanitarian Truce in Sudan

  • The United States is working with the SAF and RSF to secure a humanitarian truce in Sudan, according to U.S. Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos; he said the two sides have agreed to the ceasefire in principle and are now working out the “fine details” of the agreement (Anadolu Agency)

Famine Declaration in Sudan

  • Famine is occurring in the besieged western Sudanese city of El Fasher, as well as the southern town of Kadugli, global hunger watchdog the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a new report; it flagged twenty other areas at risk of famine (IPC)
  • El Fasher was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last week after an eighteen-month campaign to take the city (Al Jazeera)
  • At least 62,000 civilians have fled El Fasher since the capture (AP)

Foreign Ministers Demand Immediate Sudan Ceasefire

  • At a security summit in Bahrain, the foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan, and the UK urged a halt to the fighting after the Rapid Support Forces overran El Fasher, where UN officials and witnesses continue reporting mass atrocities (AP)

Bipartisan U.S. Call to Designate RSF as Terrorist Group

  • In response to atrocities in El Fasher, U.S. lawmakers from both parties have urged the Trump administration to designate the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a terrorist organization; the move follows reports of mass killings and human rights abuses (Reuters)