It has been just over a month since the world was shaken by reports of a massacre in El Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan’s Darfur region. Yet, as November draws to a close, the international response remains woefully inadequate. Tens of thousands have fled the city, but many more are still trapped, cut off from lifesaving humanitarian aid as the civil war in Sudan grinds on. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group with a notorious history, seized control of El Fasher in late October 2025, unleashing a wave of atrocities that has provoked outrage—and, in some quarters, deafening silence.
According to ABC News, Denise Brown, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, returned from Darfur last week with a grim assessment: “We do not have enough food, we do not have enough of anything. The international community has to step up.” Brown’s plea comes as the UN struggles to provide even the most basic support to survivors. With only 28% of its humanitarian appeal funded, the agency faces impossible choices. “So what would the international community like me to do to respond to the needs of the people who are traumatized?” Brown asked, highlighting the cumulative impact of donor cuts. She added, “Money is not the solution to what’s going on in Sudan, but money is surely going to help our humanitarian response.”
Sudan’s descent into chaos began in April 2023, when a bitter power struggle erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. The two men had once been allies, orchestrating the 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s fragile transition to democracy after the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. But their alliance fractured, plunging the country into what the UN calls “one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century.”
The RSF’s roots trace back to the Janjaweed militias, infamous for their role in the Darfur conflict of the 2000s. These groups were accused of war crimes and ethnic cleansing, leading the International Criminal Court to charge al-Bashir with genocide. Today, many experts see the atrocities in El Fasher as a grim continuation of that legacy. The U.S. Department of State, in January, concluded that “members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan,” citing systematic murder of civilians, sexual violence, and the deliberate denial of aid.
When El Fasher fell in late October, it was the last major stronghold of the Sudanese army in Darfur. At least 80,000 people fled to the already-overcrowded displacement camp in Tawila, making the 35-mile trek on foot. The camp, which previously housed 600,000, now strains under the weight of new arrivals. Survivors describe summary executions, gang rapes, and attacks on civilians attempting to escape—accounts echoed by satellite imagery analyzed by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which revealed blood-stained sand and mass graves visible from space.
Yet, as famine takes hold—confirmed by a UN-backed food security monitor earlier this month—the RSF reportedly blocks both the movement of civilians and the flow of humanitarian supplies. Brown told ABC News, “We’re one of the best funded humanitarian responses in the world, at 28%, and there have been cuts across the board by donors.” The situation is particularly dire for women and girls, with hundreds of documented cases of sexual violence in Darfur, though Brown cautions this is likely “just the tip of the iceberg.”
The UN has tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate with the RSF for humanitarian access. Brown and Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, met with RSF leaders last week, requesting safe passage for aid workers, evacuation of the injured, and access to detainees. “We need safe passage. We want a small team, no presence of any armed militia,” Brown said. “And so far, the answer is no.”
While the world’s attention has often been elsewhere, the Sudan crisis is not without international entanglements. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has come under intense scrutiny for its alleged role in fueling the conflict. As Politico reported, the UAE “embarked on a lobbying blitz” in the European Parliament this week, aiming to erase any mention of its involvement in a resolution condemning the war. Dutch MEP Marit Maij told DW News of plans to “call on the European Commission to stop the trade negotiations with the UAE for as long as we see that weapons are going through the UAE to the RSF.”
Despite mounting evidence—including a May 2025 Amnesty International report and US intelligence findings in October confirming the UAE supplied Chinese weapons to the RSF—the final European Parliament resolution, passed on November 28, omitted any direct reference to the UAE. The resolution condemned the “mass murder and mass atrocities” by the RSF and called for sanctions against financiers and external enablers, but stopped short of naming names. The only nod to the UAE was an affirmation of a previous joint resolution by the so-called Quad (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the US) calling for an end to the war.
Emirati officials, led by envoy Lana Nusseibeh, denied any material or political support for the RSF during their lobbying campaign. Following the resolution’s passage, Nusseibeh welcomed the outcome and reaffirmed the UAE’s “unwavering commitment to support all endeavours to address this catastrophic civil war.” Yet, General Yasser al-Atta of the Sudanese Armed Forces was blunt in his assessment, telling journalists, “the world has been silent regarding all the RSF has done in Sudan… this silence was bought by the power of the UAE’s money.”
On the ground, the impact of foreign involvement is keenly felt. At a rally in Seattle’s Urban Triangle Park on November 8, dozens of protesters condemned the UAE’s support for the RSF and called for greater international action. Mubarak Elamin, co-founder of the American Muslim Advancement Council, voiced the fears of many Sudanese in the diaspora: “People did not choose to be in this situation; it was forced on them. They’re just living a devastating life, but they have no options.”
Speakers at the rally urged attendees to pressure their representatives and to recognize the wider regional dynamics at play. “We actually moved from [it] being a competition for who is going to lead the country to becoming more of a proxy for international and regional power from the UAE and Egypt,” Elamin explained. “The UAE is supporting the RSF and the [Sudanese] army is supported by Egypt and other countries. [It’s] becoming more of regional proxies leading a war in Sudan that is really impacting the civilians.”
With more than 13 million people displaced and famine looming, the scale of Sudan’s suffering is staggering. Yet, as Sabrene Odeh of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Washington pointed out, public awareness remains limited. “We all need to learn about what’s really happening in Sudan, and I think there’s a huge misinformation campaign,” she said, urging communities to push back against harmful narratives and to elevate the voices of those directly affected.
As the rally closed, local organizer Tasneem Amir recited a poem that captured the resilience of Sudan’s people: “Don’t stop resisting even if the bullet wound shatters every last wish you got… Don’t stop resisting even if there’s no end to this war and you have nothing left to fight for.”
Sudan’s war, fueled by internal rivalries and international interests, has left millions in desperate need. Whether the world will finally heed the calls for help—or continue to look away—remains an open question.
