As the 2025 United Nations General Assembly drew to a close in New York on Monday, world leaders, diplomats, and regional organizations intensified their efforts behind closed doors to end Sudan’s devastating war—a conflict now widely regarded as the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crisis. The stakes could not be higher: since the violence erupted in April 2023, at least 40,000 people have been killed, nearly 13 million forced from their homes, and more than 24 million are facing acute food insecurity, according to United Nations agencies.
Alan Boswell, project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, described this year’s General Assembly as a potential turning point. “For the first time since the war broke out more than two years ago, Sudan’s most influential outside powers agreed this month on a roadmap to end the war,” Boswell said, as reported by multiple outlets. “Now comes the huge task of trying to convince Sudan’s warring parties to stop fighting.”
The roots of Sudan’s conflict trace back to long-simmering tensions between rival military and paramilitary commanders. In mid-April 2023, these tensions exploded into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum, quickly spreading to western Darfur and much of the country. The main antagonists: Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose brutal tactics have drawn international condemnation.
On September 12, 2025, in a significant diplomatic development, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates—collectively known as the Quad—issued a joint statement calling for an initial three-month humanitarian truce. The aim? To deliver desperately needed aid across Sudan and pave the way for a permanent ceasefire. The Quad further proposed “an inclusive and transparent transition process…concluded within nine months to meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people towards smoothly establishing an independent, civilian-led government with broad-based legitimacy and accountability.”
Momentum continued to build on the sidelines of the General Assembly. On September 24, the Quad convened to discuss how to turn their roadmap from words into action. That same day, the African Union, European Union, and foreign ministers from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom brought together representatives from the Quad, the Arab League, the United Nations, and the East African regional group IGAD. Their focus: de-escalating the war and urging Sudan’s government and the RSF to resume direct negotiations for a permanent ceasefire.
A joint statement from the AU, EU, France, Germany, UK, Denmark, Norway, and Canada condemned the military involvement of unnamed foreign countries and non-state actors, urging them to “stop fueling the conflict.” The statement also welcomed the Quad’s September 12 proposal and expressed support for efforts to coordinate international and bilateral pressure on all Sudanese parties for a ceasefire, humanitarian access, and political dialogue.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his “State of the World” address on September 23, echoed these calls, imploring all parties—and notably, external actors—to “end the external support that is fueling this bloodshed. Push to protect civilians.” Guterres did not mince words about the horrors on the ground: “In Sudan, civilians are being slaughtered, starved, and silenced. Women and girls face unspeakable violence.”
The International Criminal Court’s deputy prosecutor added further gravity to the situation in July, stating that war crimes and crimes against humanity are believed to be occurring in Darfur, where the RSF controls all regional capitals except el-Fasher in North Darfur. In late June, the RSF and their allies declared a parallel government in areas under their control—a move swiftly rejected by the UN Security Council, which warned that such a rival authority threatened Sudan’s territorial integrity and risked deepening the civil war.
Sudan’s Transitional Prime Minister, Kamil El-Tayeb Idris, took the General Assembly stage on September 25 with a forceful appeal. He accused the RSF of “systematic killing and torture and looting and rape and humiliation and the savage destruction of all the components of life,” charging that these acts were part of an effort “to control Sudan, to plunder its wealth and to change the demographics of its population.” Idris called on the international community and the UN to designate the RSF as a “terrorist militia” and demanded an immediate halt to the flow of weapons and mercenaries into Sudan.
Idris also called for the immediate lifting of the siege on the city of el-Fasher—a key humanitarian hub in Darfur—highlighting the international community’s “continued silence over the siege and the shelling of displacement camps, mosques, and health and service facilities.” Intense fighting has gripped el-Fasher since May 2024, despite repeated international warnings about the risks of violence in the city.
Looking ahead, Idris stressed his government’s commitment to a Sudanese-developed roadmap for peace, including a ceasefire “accompanied by the withdrawal of the terrorist Rapid Support militia from the areas and cities it occupies,” specifically naming el-Fasher. He pledged that the civilian government will engage in a national dialogue “that includes all political and societal forces to lay the groundwork for elections that are free and fair, and to engage positively with regional and international communities.”
The war’s impact has also spilled across Sudan’s borders. Chad’s Prime Minister, Allah Maye Halina, told the General Assembly that his country is now hosting more than two million Sudanese refugees, with 1.5 million arriving since April 2023 alone—a staggering number that continues to rise. Halina appealed for international support and emphasized that “the current crisis in Sudan cannot be resolved through weapons, but rather through peaceful means, through inclusive inter-Sudanese dialogue.” He underscored Chad’s strict neutrality and willingness to contribute to any peace initiative.
While the focus at the UN was squarely on Sudan, Idris also touched on broader regional instability, notably the ongoing crisis in Gaza. He warned that “there can be no stability or security in the region without a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue,” calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders. He also condemned recent Israeli actions in Doha, Qatar, as threats to international peace and security.
The coming months will reveal whether the diplomatic momentum generated at the 2025 General Assembly can translate into meaningful action on the ground. For now, the world’s eyes remain fixed on Sudan, where, as Guterres put it, the “make-or-break” moment for peace may finally be at hand.