On November 1, 2025, the international spotlight swung with rare urgency to Sudan, where the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Jordan issued a joint and impassioned call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Their plea, delivered at the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, came as news broke of horrific atrocities unfolding in the war-ravaged Darfur region, specifically in the city of el-Fasher—once the last major government stronghold in western Sudan.
According to Sky News and The Associated Press, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured el-Fasher after a brutal offensive, triggering a cascade of violence that United Nations officials and humanitarian groups have described as "stark and apocalyptic." Reports from the ground, satellite imagery, and survivor testimonies paint a picture of mass slaughter, ethnically targeted killings, and widespread sexual violence. The Sudan Doctors Network reported that RSF fighters "cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside Al Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards." United Nations officials estimate that more than 450 people were killed in that hospital alone, a figure almost too horrific to fathom.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, speaking at the security summit, did not mince words. "Just as a combination of leadership and international cooperation has made progress in Gaza, it is currently badly failing to deal with the humanitarian crisis and the devastating conflict in Sudan, because the reports from Darfur in recent days have truly horrifying atrocities," Cooper said, as quoted by AP. She went on to condemn "mass executions, starvation, and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, with women and children bearing the brunt of the largest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century." She added gravely, "No amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent."
Cooper’s German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, echoed her sense of alarm. "Sudan is absolutely an apocalyptic situation," Wadephul stated, according to AP and Al Jazeera. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi joined in the chorus, lamenting that Sudan has not received "the attention it deserves. A humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions has taken place there. We’ve got to stop that."
The scale of the violence in el-Fasher is staggering. Satellite images analyzed by Yale Humanitarian Labs, as reported by Sky News, show stains and shapes resembling blood and corpses visible from space. Videos circulating on social media corroborate accounts of house-to-house killings and sexual assaults. The United Nations reports that at least 62,000 people fled el-Fasher and surrounding villages between October 26 and 29, 2025—leaving behind homes, livelihoods, and, in many cases, loved ones. Insecurity along the escape routes has made aid delivery nearly impossible, compounding the suffering.
The RSF, for its part, has denied responsibility for the killings at Al Saudi Hospital. However, the accumulation of eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery, and independent reports from organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) suggest otherwise. MSF described hospitals overwhelmed with gunshot victims and children dying from malnutrition and untreated infections—a grim reminder that the violence is only one part of a broader humanitarian catastrophe.
El-Fasher’s fall is only the latest chapter in a conflict that has been raging since April 2023. The war erupted after a bitter split between Sudan’s de facto head of state, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti." Their power struggle, which followed the toppling of a transitional government meant to steer Sudan toward democracy, has plunged the country into chaos. The United Nations estimates that more than 40,000 people have been killed—though aid groups warn the true toll could be many times higher—and over 14 million have been displaced. The conflict has triggered famine in parts of Darfur and fueled outbreaks of disease that have killed thousands more.
The RSF’s campaign of violence has not been limited to Darfur. In North Kordofan State, 36,000 people were recently displaced from Bara town following RSF advances, according to the International Organization for Migration. Reports have also emerged of five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers being summarily executed and at least 25 women gang-raped when RSF fighters stormed a shelter for displaced families near El Fasher University. These incidents, reported by international aid agencies and confirmed by MSF, have drawn widespread condemnation from the humanitarian community.
For those who remain trapped in Darfur, the situation grows more desperate by the day. Sky News reported that approximately 260,000 people—half of them children—are feared to be trapped in el-Fasher alone. Analysts believe tens of thousands of people were killed in a two-day window during the city’s fall. The RSF has also used drones to attack neighboring towns, including Tine on the border with Chad, where at least five bombs were dropped, injuring civilians and further destabilizing the region.
International response, while forceful in rhetoric, has so far failed to stem the tide of violence. The UK announced on November 1 that it would send £5 million in aid to Sudan, with £2 million specifically earmarked for survivors of sexual violence. Yet, as Cooper herself acknowledged, "no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent." The humanitarian needs are simply too great, and the risks to aid workers too severe, for relief efforts to keep pace with the scale of the crisis.
The conflict’s roots are deep and tangled. After the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Sudan seemed poised for a transition to stable civilian rule under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. But a 2021 coup led by al-Burhan and supported by Dagalo’s RSF derailed that process, setting the stage for the current calamity. The international community’s attention has often been elsewhere, as Jordan’s Safadi pointed out, and Sudan’s suffering has largely unfolded in the shadows.
Now, with the world’s gaze finally returning to Sudan, the question remains: will this latest call for a ceasefire mark a turning point, or will it be yet another moment of fleeting outrage in a crisis that has already claimed too many lives? As the diplomats in Manama made clear, the time for action is now. The suffering in Sudan, they warned, is not just a regional tragedy but a test of the world’s conscience.
For the millions displaced and the countless lives lost or shattered, the world’s response in the coming days will speak volumes about the value placed on human life in the face of overwhelming violence.
