The Kordofan region of Sudan is once again on the brink of disaster, as the United Nations and humanitarian organizations sound the alarm over a new wave of violence and mass atrocities. Following the devastating fall of El-Fasher in North Darfur just weeks ago, fierce fighting has erupted across Kordofan, threatening to plunge the region into a humanitarian catastrophe reminiscent of the horrors that unfolded in Darfur earlier this year, according to reports from Al Jazeera, The National, and the New York Times.
On December 4, 2025, UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a stark warning: “It is truly shocking to see history repeating itself in Kordofan so soon after the horrific events in El Fasher.” Türk called on the international community to act swiftly, urging, “We cannot remain silent in front of yet another man-made catastrophe.” He pressed global powers to halt the flow of arms to Sudan’s warring factions and to pressure both sides into an immediate ceasefire.
The conflict in Sudan, which began in April 2023 as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under Gen Mohamed Dagalo, has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced nearly 12 million people. The violence has escalated sharply in recent months, with the RSF making significant territorial gains, including the capture of El-Fasher in late October and the key towns of Bara and Babnusa in North and West Kordofan, respectively.
Witnesses in Al Obeid, North Kordofan’s capital, described thick grey smoke rising over the city as RSF drone strikes and artillery shelling targeted an army barracks late on December 3, 2025. According to The National, some army troops have since relocated into residential neighborhoods, possibly to avoid further attacks. The RSF’s push toward Al Obeid is seen as a strategic move, potentially opening a direct corridor to Khartoum, the national capital, which government forces recaptured earlier this year.
While the RSF claims to be responding to ceasefire violations by the army, the violence has shown little sign of abating. Gen Dagalo declared a unilateral ceasefire last month at the urging of the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, but the RSF has continued its offensives, citing ongoing attacks by the SAF. Gen Al Burhan, meanwhile, has rejected the truce, insisting that the army will not lay down arms until the RSF is defeated. The result has been a relentless cycle of attacks and counterattacks, with civilians caught in the crossfire.
The humanitarian toll is staggering. Since late October 2025, the UN has documented at least 269 civilian deaths in Kordofan alone, resulting from aerial bombardments, artillery fire, and summary executions. Communication blackouts across the region mean the real number is likely much higher. Reports have emerged of revenge attacks, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and the forced recruitment of children. Hospitals are overwhelmed or out of action entirely, with al-Nuhud Hospital in West Kordofan now largely nonfunctional. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 1,700 health workers and patients have been killed since the conflict began.
Key cities such as Kadugli and Dilling are under siege, with famine already confirmed in Kadugli and looming in Dilling. All parties to the conflict are blocking humanitarian access, compounding the suffering of civilians. More than 45,000 people have fled their homes in Kordofan in recent weeks, according to the International Organization for Migration, while nearly 100,000 have fled El-Fasher alone, though only a fraction have reached aid centers in Tawila and other towns.
The atrocities committed during the RSF’s capture of El-Fasher have shocked observers and fueled international outrage. According to Al Jazeera, RSF fighters took videos of themselves laughing and executing unarmed civilians, with one saying, “Look at all this work. Look at this genocide. They will all die like this.” Humanitarian workers initially estimated more than 2,500 deaths, but Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi later claimed that 27,000 were killed in just three days. Verified videos showed dozens of bodies in trenches outside the city, and reports documented summary executions, attacks on civilians along escape routes, house-to-house raids, and sexual violence against women and girls.
Hanaa El Tijani of Sudan’s Youth Network for Civil Monitoring described the RSF’s actions as “an unprecedented explosion of violence and grave violations against civilians,” according to Radio Dabanga. She said the network had documented “mass killings of hundreds of civilians, in addition to the execution of dozens of patients and medical staff inside the Saudi Hospital, which was the last functioning health facility in the city.” These acts, she stressed, constituted “a systematic pattern of mass killing and ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in the city.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council has unanimously backed a new independent investigation into the El-Fasher massacre. Satellite images taken on October 26 confirmed RSF executions on city streets, and the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab reported that most civilians in El-Fasher prior to the RSF’s assault have either been killed, detained, fled, or are in hiding. “We are only at the beginning of a wave of violence,” HRL Executive Director Nathaniel Raymond told The Guardian. “I have never seen a level of violence against an area like we are seeing now. This is only comparable with a Rwandan-style killing in the first 24 hours.”
The RSF has also been accused of demanding large sums of money to allow civilians to flee El-Fasher, leaving the most vulnerable populations trapped. UNICEF’s Sheldon Yett told France 24, “The displaced people who arrive here are completely exhausted and without resources. For months, there has been no food, medicine or water in El-Fasher. The besieged civilians were eating animal food.”
The strategic importance of Kordofan cannot be overstated. The region sits between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and government-held territory in the east and north, serving as a vital corridor that links the heartlands of both warring factions. Control of major cities like Al Obeid could give the RSF a direct route toward Khartoum and further tilt the balance of power in this brutal civil war.
As the violence grinds on, the international community faces mounting pressure to act. Amnesty International has called for war crimes investigations, and the European Union has imposed sanctions on RSF deputy leader Abdelrahim Dagalo. Yet, as Volker Türk lamented, “Have we not learned our lessons from the past? We cannot stand idly by and allow more Sudanese to become victims of horrific human rights violations.”
With the world’s attention now focused on Kordofan, the fate of millions hangs in the balance, and the need for urgent action has never been more apparent.
