Report Claims Over 1,500 People Killed in El Fasher
A report from the Sudan Doctors Network estimates over 1,500 deaths in El Fasher since the RSF captured the city following a seventeen-month-long siege; aid agencies have documented summary executions, attacks on refugees, and sexual violence against women and girls (Al Jazeera)
The UN said that the death count included over 460 hospital patients (AP)
Yale Report Finds Evidence of Mass Killings in El Fasher
Using satellite imagery, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab corroborated claims of continued mass killings of civilians in the forty-eight hours since the RSF captured El Fasher (Yale)
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. intelligence agencies assess the UAE increased its arms deliveries to the RSF in recent months (WSJ)
RSF Takes Over El Fasher
Sudan’s RSF militia took over the last major government-held city in Darfur this week in a battle that humanitarian groups said involved widespread killing of civilians; Sudan’s army said it withdrew from the city of El Fasher by late Monday (NYT)
Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan accused the RSF of killing civilians in a Monday address (France24)
The UN Human Rights Office said it received reports of executions in the city, noting those included reported killings of fleeing civilians (UN)
The reports raised fears of a repeat of RSF conduct in another Darfur city, where the RSF carried out ethnically motivated killings when it took control in 2023, according to a UN panel of experts. The RSF victory in El Fasher marks an end to an eighteen-month siege but raises the risk of a de facto partition of the country, as the RSF already controls much of the western Darfur region (Reuters)
RSF Claims it Captured El Fasher
El Fasher is one of the last cities under government control in the country’s Darfur region (CNN)
Fighting in the city has left hundreds of thousands of people trapped, the UN emergency relief coordinator warned, calling for an immediate ceasefire in El Fasher and across Sudan (OCHA)
A militia that supports Sudan’s army said that residents of the city continued to fight (NYT)
Third Consecutive RSF Drone Strike in Khartoum
The Rapid Support Forces hit Khartoum’s international airport with unmanned aircraft shortly after commercial flights resumed, though the army said it downed the drones; separately, UN relief agencies renewed their warnings about a rapidly deepening humanitarian emergency across the country (AP)
UAE Calls for Sudan Ceasefire
Anwar Gargash, a senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official, said a ceasefire should occur immediately and lead to a civilian rather than military government, adding that the UAE was willing to support humanitarian efforts across Sudan; humanitarian organizations claim that the UAE has played a major role in fueling the war (Reuters)
Drone Strikes Sudan Airport Area
A drone attack struck the area surrounding Khartoum’s airport just one day before its planned reopening; casualty figures remain unknown, and the RSF has not claimed responsibility (BBC)
Still, the airport moved forward with the reopening, with a civilian passenger flight landing for the first time in two years (AP)
Al-Burhan Lays Out Terms for Peace Talks
Speaking in Atbara, General al-Burhan outlined his conditions for peace negotiations, insisting that talks must end the RSF rebellion and prevent its recurrence; his remarks appear to reject the Quad’s September statement, which called for a humanitarian truce leading to a permanent ceasefire (Sudan Tribune)
Separately, a New York federal panel ruled that BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, helped the Sudanese government access U.S. financial channels twenty years ago, ordering nearly $21 million in damages to three American citizens displaced by the Darfur war; the bank pledged to appeal (AP)
Surge in Displacements From El Fasher
A senior UN migration official said renewed battles in Darfur’s capital have pushed the number of uprooted people in the town of Tawila to triple and cut El Fasher’s population by more than half over the past year; the official cited conflict, disease, and food shortages as the major drivers of these worsening displacement trends (AP)
RSF Drone Strike on Shelter Kills Fifty-Seven People
A drone strike by the RSF on a displacement shelter in El-Fasher killed fifty-seven people, including twenty-two women and seventeen children; three infants were also among the fatalities, according to the Sudan Doctors Network (Al Jazeera)
Mass Civilian Deaths in El Fasher
The UN said bombardment and raids by the RSF near a displacement camp and adjacent neighborhoods killed at least fifty-three civilians over three days, including patients sheltering at one of El Fasher’s last functioning hospitals; the UN human rights chief urged states with leverage to act to prevent further atrocities (AP)
ICC Conviction Over Darfur War Crimes
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled that Sudanese militia leader Ali Kushayb, one of the leaders of the government-backed Janjaweed militia, was guilty of twenty-seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity (UN)
It is the court’s first conviction related to the 2003-2020 conflict in Darfur and its first for gender-based persecution (BBC)
Some of the Janjaweed later helped form the militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is currently battling Sudan’s government in an ongoing civil war (NPR)
UN Warns of Imminent Atrocities in El-Fasher
UN Human Rights hief Volker Türk urged immediate action to prevent “large-scale, ethnically driven attacks” after a UN report suggested that the Rapid Support Forces killed at least ninety-one people in the besieged city of el-Fasher between September 19–29; he warned that 260,000 civilians remain trapped under severe siege conditions, as RSF forces tighten their nearly 500-day encirclement (Al Jazeera)
Sudanese Armed Forces Claims Foreign Mercenaries Killed in Darfur
The Sudanese Armed Forces claimed that it killed foreign fighters from Colombia and Ukraine in el-Fasher; according to the statement, the RSF mercenaries were killed attempting to take residential buildings in the besieged city (Africa News)
Sudanese Armed Forces Conduct Supply Airdrop to Besieged Base
The Sudanese Armed Forces successfully carried out an airdrop of supplies to its base in el-Fasher, the first such operation in five months, including ammunition, medicine, food, and cash for the besieged in the city (Sudan Tribune)
The RSF has put the city under siege since April 2024, and about 260,000 civilians are currently trapped (NYT)
United States Pushes Sudan Truce
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Africa adviser Massad Boulos suggested a plan backed by the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE for a three-month truce followed by a permanent ceasefire is advancing; the United Kingdom joined calls for an urgent humanitarian pause, while aid agencies warned of catastrophe in the city of El Fasher, where over 250,000 civilians are besieged under bombardment from the Rapid Support Forces (Telegraph)
Drone Strike Kills Civilians in Sudan’s El-Fasher
At least seventy people, including eleven children, died when a drone hit a mosque during prayers in the besieged city of el-Fasher; the Sudanese army and aid groups accused the Rapid Support Forces of carrying out the strike, while the UN and Egypt condemned the attack as a violation of humanitarian law (AP)
Sudanese Paramilitary Drone Strike Kills Dozens
An aid group said a Rapid Support Forces drone hit a mosque in Abu Shouk displacement camp, killing seventy-five, while a UN report documented rising ethnic violence, sexual abuse, and indiscriminate drone attacks that have intensified Sudan’s war in 2025 (CBS/AFP)
Wagner Fighters Accused of Crossing Into Sudan From Central African Republic
Local sources and tribal leaders said Wagner mercenaries crossed more than thirty-five kilometers into South Darfur from the Central African Republic, killing at least seven civilians and forcing villagers to flee; a tribal statement accused Sudanese military intelligence of coordinating the raids (Sudan Tribune)
Meanwhile, UN Personal Envoy Ramtane Lamamra said he is working to sway the positions of countries involved in Sudan’s war, as the army accuses the UAE of backing the RSF while reportedly receiving support from Iran and Egypt; he urged stronger efforts to prevent the conflict’s third year from becoming normalized (Addis Standard)
U.S., Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and UAE Call for Truce
The United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) jointly called for a three-month truce that could pave the way to ending the war in Sudan (Reuters)
The four countries said they would “exert all efforts” to reach a negotiated solution to the conflict (State)
They comprise a complex web of allegiances in Sudan’s war: the Sudanese army accuses the UAE of backing its opponent, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia have backed the army (Business Insider)
RSF Kills Forty in Attack on Displaced Camp in North Darfur
Forty people were killed and another nineteen were left injured after the RSF launched attacks on a famine-stricken displacement camp in el-Fasher, raiding the site and targeting citizens inside their homes; the Abu Shouk displacement camp, which houses around 450,000 displaced people, has been repeatedly attacked over the course of the war (AP)
UNHCR: Cholera Spreading on Chad-Sudan Border
The UN refugee agency said 4,300 cases of cholera were reported in Sudan’s Darfur region, while 264 cases were reported at the Chad refugee settlement near the country’s border; the refugee agency said funding shortfalls were hampering its response and appealed for $130 million in aid (UNHCR)
Sudan Strikes Suspected UAE Plane
Dozens of Colombian mercenaries traveling to fight in Sudan were reported dead after Sudanese air forces attacked the Emirati aircraft carrying them, Sudan’s state media said; they were reportedly slated to fight on the side of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (AFP)
The UAE, which Sudan accuses of aiding the RSF, separately banned Sudanese planes from its airports (Sudan Tribune)
The UAE foreign ministry has denied it was playing a role in Sudan’s war (AP)
Al-Fashir Siege Continues as Famine Looms, Shelling Persists
In al-Fashir, the largest remaining frontline in North Darfur state between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), hundreds of thousands of residents do not have access to electricity and may soon run out of food; additionally, RSF artillery shells and drone strikes continually strike the city, driving up the death toll (Reuters)
The RSF’s siege of al-Fashir means that food supplies and aid convoys are attacked before they can reach the city, and the cost of smuggling in goods is five times higher than the national average (Reuters)
Some residents have resorted to eating animal feed, such as hay or ambaz (Reuters)
Residents attempting to flee the city have been attacked by RSF fighters, including fourteen people who were killed and dozens more injured today (Reuters)
Famine Kills Thirteen in July in El-Daein
Medics in East Darfur state’s el-Daein stated that in the past month, thirteen people have died due to severe food shortages in a displacement camp named Lagawa (BBC)
The United Nations also warned of a cholera outbreak in Darfur, spurred by minimal water and sanitation services and low vaccination coverage (BBC)