The United Nations Human Rights Council convened a rare emergency session in Geneva on November 14, 2025, casting a harsh spotlight on the spiraling violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and, in particular, the city of el-Fasher. The session came after weeks of mounting reports of atrocities, including mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement, following the city’s capture by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in late October. The international response, though urgent in tone, underscored the complexity and frustration of trying to halt what many now describe as one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 450 people were killed at the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher alone after the RSF seized control of the city on October 26, 2025. The violence didn’t stop at the hospital’s doors. RSF fighters, according to testimonies gathered by the UN and humanitarian organizations, swept through neighborhoods, going house to house and committing acts of murder and sexual assault. Displaced civilians described seeing dead bodies lining the streets, while others recounted harrowing escapes from indiscriminate attacks. The United Nations estimates that nearly 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF takeover, with tens of thousands more still trapped inside the city, cut off from food, water, and medical care.
“The atrocities that are unfolding in el-Fasher were foreseen and preventable, but they were not prevented. They constitute the gravest of crimes,” Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the council on Friday. He did not mince words about the scale or the horror of the violence, adding, “None of us should be surprised by reports that since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, there have been mass killings of civilians, ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence including gang rape, abductions for ransom, widespread arbitrary detentions, attacks on health facilities, medical staff and humanitarian workers, and other appalling atrocities.”
For many, the fall of el-Fasher was a nightmare long in the making. The RSF, a powerful paramilitary group with roots in the notorious Janjaweed militias, has been locked in a brutal civil war with Sudan’s army since April 2023. What began as a power struggle between military leaders has devolved into a campaign of terror, with non-Arab groups in Darfur especially targeted. The United States and several humanitarian groups have gone so far as to call the campaign a genocide.
Satellite images, cited by BBC News, show piles of bodies and blood-stained earth in and around el-Fasher—grim evidence of the carnage visible even from space. Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN’s independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, described the city as “a crime scene” and told the council, “Our mission has collected evidence of unspeakable atrocities, deliberate killings, torture, rape, abduction for ransom, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, all at the mass scale.” She added, “A comprehensive investigation is required to establish the full picture, but what we already know is devastating.”
During the special session, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to urgently investigate the abuses in el-Fasher. The resolution also tasked the investigative team with identifying, where possible, those responsible for the crimes, with the aim of ensuring accountability. Though the council itself, composed of 47 UN member states, lacks the power to enforce compliance, its investigations can help document violations for potential use by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC, for its part, has already begun taking steps to preserve and collect evidence regarding the alleged crimes in el-Fasher as part of a broader investigation into abuses committed in Darfur since April 2023. The hope, expressed by many in Geneva, is that a thorough investigation might one day bring the perpetrators to justice—though for now, that remains a distant prospect.
Meanwhile, the violence is spreading. Volker Türk warned that the neighboring Kordofan region is now seeing similar patterns of bombardments, blockades, and forced displacement. “Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur,” he said, urging the international community to act before the crisis grows even worse.
The United States, too, has stepped up its rhetoric. Speaking at the conclusion of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada on November 12, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for coordinated international action to cut off the supply of weapons to the RSF. “They’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately,” Rubio told reporters, as quoted by BBC News. He added, “We’re going to do everything we can to bring it to an end, and we’ve encouraged partner nations to join us in this fight.”
Rubio’s comments, among the most forceful yet from the Trump administration, come amid growing evidence that the RSF relies on external support for its arms and logistics. Sudan’s army has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supplying weapons and mercenaries to the RSF via African nations—a charge both the UAE and the RSF deny. Amnesty International, however, has found evidence of weapons manufactured in Serbia, Russia, China, Turkey, Yemen, and the UAE being used in Sudan, with smuggling routes often passing through the UAE and Chad before reaching Darfur. The RSF is also accused of using the UAE as a marketplace for illicit gold sales, helping to finance its operations.
The diplomatic picture is complicated. The US, UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia—collectively known as the “Quad”—have been working together to broker a ceasefire and a political transition in Sudan, even as accusations about arms supplies continue to fly. The UAE, for its part, has publicly condemned the RSF’s attacks in el-Fasher, while also accusing the Sudanese army of its own abuses, including starvation tactics and the use of chemical weapons—allegations the army denies.
Despite a UN arms embargo on Darfur that has been in place since 2004, calls to extend the embargo to the rest of Sudan have so far gone unheeded. The UK government has also faced criticism over allegations that British-made weapons may have ended up in RSF hands, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper emphasizing the country’s strict export controls.
The scale of the crisis is staggering. The UN estimates that at least 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2023, though aid groups say the true toll could be much higher. The US and other sources put the number at more than 150,000. Some 12 million people have been displaced, making Sudan the site of the world’s largest displacement crisis. Humanitarian agencies warn that many of those still trapped in conflict zones face starvation, disease, and further violence.
The international community, as Volker Türk noted, faces a clear duty to act. “There has been too much pretence and performance and too little action. It must stand up against these atrocities, a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population,” he said. For the people of el-Fasher and the wider Darfur region, the hope is that the world’s attention—however belated—will translate into meaningful protection and, one day, justice.
As the dust settles on the council’s emergency session, the fate of Sudan’s civilians hangs in the balance, with the promise of accountability and peace still a long way off.
