File image of Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Khartoum has largely been spared attacks by the RSF since it was recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces last year, but the capital has recently seen sporadic strikes. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Image used for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese military for over two years, said on Thursday (November 6, 2025) it has agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by a U.S.-led mediator group known as the Quad.

The agreement to the proposal comes more than a week after the RSF seized el-Fasher city which had been under siege for over 18 months. It was also the last Sudanese military stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

“The Rapid Support Forces looks forward to implementing the agreement and immediately commencing discussions on arrangements for a cessation of hostilities and the fundamental principles guiding the political process in Sudan, in a manner that addresses the root causes of the conflicts, ending the suffering of the Sudanese people,” an RSF statement read.

A Sudan military official told The Associated Press the Army welcomes the Quad’s proposal but will only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and give up weapons per previous peace proposals. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the matter.

Millions face displacement, food insecurity

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising. The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the WHO, and displaced 12 million. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher. Over 24 million people are also facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

Massad Boulos, a U.S. adviser for African affairs, said the U.S. was working with the Sudanese Army and RSF to bring about a humanitarian truce and could have an announcement “soon.”

“We were working on this for the last almost 10 days with both sides, hoping to finalise the details,” Mr. Boulos told the AP in an interview on Monday. The U.S.-led plan would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political process, he said.

U.S. working with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE

The U.S. has been working with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — the Quad — on ways to end the war.

“We urge both sides to move forward in response to the U.S.-led effort to conclude a humanitarian truce, given the immediate urgency of de-escalating the violence and ending the suffering of the Sudanese people,” the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.

El-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur, is one of two regions hit by famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring group, said on Monday. The other is the town of Kadugli in South Kordofan province.

“We have to confirm that the main reason behind this famine is that it’s man-made. We’re not talking about natural disasters because there is ongoing conflict, insecurity, the inability to access food, and the lack of humanitarian corridors that ensures people in much need obtain food,” said AbdulHakim Elwaer, regional representative for Near East and North Africa.

Talks on helping aid reach those in need

Mr. Elwaer told The Associated Press on Thursday during a video call that there were talks for almost two years about making it easier for aid to reach communities in need through opening safe humanitarian corridors.

“I’m optimistic that by the end of the year we’ll reach a solution and there has to be a solution because we can’t allow millions of people to die of hunger because aid is not reaching them,” he said.

The nonprofit Islamic Relief warned in a statement on Thursday that community kitchens that provide a lifeline to many families are at risk of collapse. A new survey by the group found that 83% of families in east and west Sudan are now without enough food.

Humanitarian organizations have long labelled Sudan as having one of the most alarming displacement crises in the world. Most recently, more people were displaced after el-Fasher was overtaken by the RSF following a series of attacks by the group that ran rampant in the city.

An influx of displaced people recently fled el-Fasher to arrive at Al-Affad displacement camp in the town of Al-Dabbah in the Northern State, which is some 350 kilometres from the capital Khartoum.

Harrowing escapes from el-Fasher

Several people who spoke to the AP this week recounted harrowing details of their escape from el-Fasher. Othman Mohamed, a teacher who fled the city at the end of September, said he saw bodies scattered along the road and people collapsing from exhaustion and abuse during the journey.

He said he had lived in a crisis in el-Fasher where drones and artillery were used and food was barely available. People often survived on Ombaz until it was hard to obtain. Ombaz is what is left from pressing peanut oil.

“In el-Fasher there’s nothing but beating and killing using drones in the sky that you can’t see but it hits you. The drone strikes you without you feeling it,” said Rawda Mohamed, who spent hours walking to Al-Affad camp.

Mathilde Vu, an advocacy manager with the Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC, said in a briefing on Thursday that people in el-Fasher have been surviving on animal food and rain water. They have often been shelled and sheltered in holes they dug in the ground for safety. Those who tried to flee were attacked, she added.

People made “the journey on foot for several days, through extreme thirst, hunger, and violence, with some of them picked up in trucks only for the final stretch. Hundreds of people had to immediately be referred for medical attention due to their health condition. Some people at the reception centre were simply too dehydrated to talk,” she said of those arriving in Tawila.

Published – November 07, 2025 01:36 am IST

Only a few thousand Sudanese have reached the nearest camp for displaced in the days since Sudan’s paramilitary forces seized el-Fasher city, raising fears over tens of thousands who might still be trapped as survivors described killings and other atrocities, an aid group said on Sunday (November 2, 2025).

The Rapid Support Forces took control of the western Darfur region last week, after ousting the rival Sudanese Army from the city that was besieged for 18 months.

Since then, reports and videos have circulated of RSF atrocities against civilians including beatings, killings and sexual assaults, according to testimonies by civilians and aid workers. The dead included at least 460 killed in the hospital, according to the World Health Organisation.

Tens of thousands are believed to have fled el-Fasher, according to the UN migration agency. However, less than 6,000 have made it to the nearest camp in Tawila, 65 kilometres away, said Shashwat Saraf, Sudan director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which runs the camp.

Almost 1,000 people arrived in the last three days, he said.

“The numbers are still very few. We are not seeing the hundreds of thousands that we were expecting. If people are still in el-Fasher, it will be very difficult for them to survive,” he told The Associated Press by phone from Tawila.

Survivors describe dodging gunmen as they fled el-Fasher

The fall of el-Fasher marked a new turning point in the war between the RSF and Sudan’s armed forces, which erupted in April 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher.

The war has also displaced more than 14 million people and unleashed outbreaks of diseases, killing thousands.

“We feel that a lot of people are stuck in locations from where it is not safe for them to move, and they need to pay to move and they don’t have money to pay,” Mr. Saraf said.

Survivors who made the journey on foot have shared harrowing details of having to dodge gunmen shooting at them as they fled.

“People arriving in the camp are mostly disoriented and dehydrated with bruises all over. Sometimes they do not even remember their names, they have to be taken to the hospital and have IV fluids,” Mr. Saraf said.

Mr. Saraf also said that around 170 unaccompanied children, some of whom as young as 3 years old, trekked to Tawila without knowing where their family members were. They came along with older children or adults who were not their relatives.

Sudan’s official accuses UAE of backing a “terrorist organisation”

In a news conference on Sunday, Sudan’s ambassador in Cairo, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, accused the RSF of carrying out war crimes in el-Fasher.

Mr. Adawi said that his government would not negotiate with the RSF, urging the international community to designate the group as a terrorist organisation.

“The government of Sudan is calling on the international community to act immediately and effectively rather than just make statements of condemnation,” Mr. Adawi said.

Mr. Adawi renewed his government’s accusations that the United Arab Emirates has been arming the RSF, insisting that the Gulf state should not be involved in any mediation efforts.

The UAE has backed the RSF and opposed the Sudanese military, pointing to the Army’s ties to Islamic forces that Abu Dhabi has long opposed. The UAE has denied the accusations despite evidence to the contrary.

When asked earlier on Sunday about his country’s support for the RSF, senior UAE diplomat Anwar Gargash did not directly answer the question while attending the annual Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain.

He said that the international community made a “critical mistake” in supporting both the military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and his rival, RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, when the Army ousted a Western-backed power-sharing government in 2021.

“We all made the mistake when the two generals who are fighting the civil war today overthrew the civilian government,” Mr. Gargash said. “That was, in my opinion, looking backwards was a critical mistake. We should have put our foot down — all of us collectively.”

The UAE supports a three-month humanitarian ceasefire, with the two parties negotiating and a civilian transitional government formed in nine months, he said.

There are mounting fears that the RSF may expand its military campaign toward the country’s centre once again, buoyed by its seizure of the entire Darfur region.

Twelve people were killed, including at least five children, in RSF attacks on two camps sheltering displaced people in the central Kordofan region, the Sudan Doctor Network, a medical group tracking the war, said on Saturday.

Published – November 03, 2025 02:26 am IST

Representational image only. File
| Photo Credit: AP

READ MORE

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival paramilitaries who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

The army said that Sinja had been “liberated… from the terrorist militia”.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

“Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation,” the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser’s office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to “inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja”.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his “indescribable joy” at seeing the army enter the city after “months of terror”.

“At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you,” the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The paramilitaries control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million — creating what the UN says is the world’s largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref — where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge — Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family’s ordeal might soon be at an end.

“We’ll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering,” she told AFP.

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village, a medical source and witnesses said on Friday (August 16, 2024), in an attack that followed U.S.-sponsored talks aimed at ending 16 months of devastating war.

The assault occurred in Jalgini village in the State of Sennar on Thursday (August 15, 2024).

“We received 55 dead and dozens of wounded at the hospital on Thursday, and 25 of them died on Friday, bringing the death toll to 80,” a source at Jalgini’s medical centre told AFP.

Also Read:Why is Sudan still at war a year on? | Explained

A survivor said the paramilitaries attacked on Thursday (August 15, 2024) morning.

“Yesterday morning, three military vehicles attacked Jalgini. The residents resisted, prompting the retreat of the paramilitaries, who then returned with dozens of vehicles,” a Jalgini resident, who took his wounded son to the hospital added.

“They opened fire, torching homes and killing numerous people,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “On Friday, some bodies were still strewn on the street.”

Ceasefire talks began on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) in Geneva, hosted by the United States, Saudi, and Swiss mediators, though the Sudanese army refused to take part.

Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have failed to produce an agreement to end the fighting.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan’s regular army, captured the Sennar State capital of Sinja in June.

Since then, fighting in Sennar has displaced nearly 726,000 people, according to the United Nations agency the International Organization for Migration.

Many of them had fled the war in other parts of the northeast African country.

The State connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central State of Al-Jazira, the vast western Darfur region and large swathes of Kordofan in the south.

The war pits Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

It has pushed the country of 48 million to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations, and killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

More than 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, most in areas facing worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting spreads.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.