Sudans

Sudan was teetering on the edge of crisis long before open war erupted in April 2023. Decades of authoritarian rule under Omar al-Bashir resulted in a fragile economy, fragmented security forces, and entrenched paramilitary structures.

Following the coup that overthrew al-Bashir in 2019, a fragile civilian-military transitional arrangement failed to unite competing factions. Political instability, localised rebellions, and a simmering rivalry between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – the successor to the Popular Defence Forces, government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed who committed war crimes in Darfur in the early 2000s – escalated into full-blown conflict.

By mid-2023, Sudan was effectively split into contested zones, with major urban centres, such as Khartoum and Omdurman, transformed into battlefields, and millions of civilians displaced internally or forced across borders as refugees.

Although geographically removed, the European Union played a consequential role in these developments. For nearly a decade, it pursued a strategy of “externalising” migration control, directing aid, training, and equipment to African states ostensibly to reduce irregular migration towards Europe.

In Sudan, this approach produced unintended and devastating consequences that the EU is yet to be held accountable for. Funding initially justified under “migration management” and “capacity building” intersected with opaque arms flows, Gulf intermediaries, and weak oversight. European money and materiel, intended to stabilise populations and impose border forces to buffer the migratory ambitions of Africans, may have indirectly reinforced the very actors now perpetrating war crimes in Sudan.

Between 2014 and 2018, the EU channelled more than 200 million euros ($232m at the current exchange rate) into Sudan via the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) and the Better Migration Management (BMM) initiative.

These programmes formally aimed to strengthen migration control, border security and anti-trafficking enforcement. In reality, they entrenched cooperation between the EU and Sudan’s security structures, including units that effectively merged into the RSF.

As early as 2017, the Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on conflict, corruption and human rights, published a report titled Border Control from Hell, warning that “the gravest concern about the EU’s new partnership with Sudan is that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the most abusive paramilitary groups in the country, stands to benefit from EU funding” and that “the equipment that enables identification and registration of migrants will also reinforce the surveillance capabilities of a Sudanese government that has violently suppressed Sudanese citizens for the past 28 years”.

Two years later, the EU had to suspend several migration-control activities in Sudan because there was a risk that resources could be “diverted for repressive aims”, according to an EU official document cited by German news outlet Deutsche Welle.

And yet, a factsheet titled What the EU really does in Sudan, published on the bloc’s website in 2018, claimed: “The EU does not provide any financial support to the Government of Sudan … The Rapid Support Forces of the Sudanese military do not benefit directly or indirectly from EU funding.”

All this raises an important question: If the EU knew of the risk of diversion, why did it still invest hundreds of millions into a context where control over the end use of training, equipment and funds was manifestly weak?

What is worse is that the EU’s role was not limited to supplying funds that could be misappropriated. It also provided weapons, albeit indirectly.

As the conflict deepened, investigators started uncovering foreign-manufactured weapons and ammunition circulating widely among the RSF and the SAF. Verified imagery, open-source analysis and serial number tracing have revealed European-manufactured systems on Sudan’s battlefields. In November 2024, Amnesty International released an investigation disclosing that Nimr Ajban armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were equipped with French-made Galix defensive systems. Amnesty’s analysts verified images and videos from multiple Sudanese locations and concluded that, if deployed in Darfur, their use would breach the longstanding United Nations arms embargo on the region.

In April, investigations by France24 and the Reuters news agency traced 81mm mortar shells found in an RSF convoy in North Darfur back to Bulgaria. The markings on this ammunition matched mortar bombs manufactured by a Bulgarian firm and exported legally to the United Arab Emirates in 2019. The Bulgarian government had not authorised the re-export of the shells from the UAE to Sudan.

In October, The Guardian reported that British military equipment, including small-arms target systems and engines for APCs, had been used by the RSF in Sudan, and they may have been supplied by the UAE.

Taken together, these findings illustrate a pattern: European-made arms and weapons systems, legally exported to third countries, have subsequently been diverted into Sudan’s conflict, despite embargoes and supposed safeguards.

Although the UAE denies it plays any role in the conflict, its position as an intermediary hub for re-exported weaponry has been repeatedly documented. Still, European suppliers, bound by end-user agreements and export-control frameworks, share responsibility for ensuring compliance.

Under the United Kingdom and EU regulations, governments must deny or revoke licences when there is a clear risk of diversion to conflict zones or human rights abusers. The use of European-made arms and weapons systems in Sudan, therefore, demands a rigorous reassessment of post-shipment monitoring and enforcement.

Despite this, European and British governments have continued to issue new export licences to potential violators, including the UAE. Recent reporting by Middle East Eye shows that the UK approved roughly $227m in military exports to the UAE between April and June this year, even after being informed that Emirati-supplied equipment had reached the RSF.

European countries are by far not an exception in failing to ensure that their weapons are not diverted to war zones under embargo.

My own country, South Africa, has also faced criticism over the lack of control over its arms shipments. In the mid-2010s, the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) faced international and domestic scrutiny after South African-manufactured weapons and ammunition were reportedly used by Saudi and Emirati forces in Yemen.

As a result, in 2019, the NCACC delayed or withheld export approvals, especially for “the most lethal” items, amid disputes over updated inspection clauses and human rights concerns. The South African authorities demanded that they be granted access to facilities in importer countries to ensure compliance with the end-user agreement – something the UAE and Saudi Arabia, along with several other countries, refused to provide. By 2022, previously withheld consignments were eventually cleared under renegotiated terms.

Today, evidence suggests that South African weapons may have been diverted to Sudan as well. Investigators and open-source analysts claim to have identified munitions consistent with South African manufacture in Sudan.

The South African case illustrates that even when there is political will to ensure compliance with the end-user agreements for arms sales, enforcement can be challenging. And yet, it is a necessary and crucial part of peacebuilding efforts.

If democratic governments wish to reclaim credibility, end-use monitoring must be enforceable, not a bureaucratic concession. The NCACC in Pretoria and export control authorities in Brussels, Sofia, Paris and London must publish transparent audits of past licences, investigate credible diversion cases, and suspend new approvals where risk remains unmitigated.

In parallel, the EU must ensure migration management funding cannot be coopted by armed actors.

Without such measures, Europe’s migration policy and South Africa’s defence trade risk complicity in a grim paradox: initiatives justified in the name of security that foster insecurity.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Sudan Doctors Network says military use of hospital is ‘a blatant violation of sanctity of medical institutions’.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have converted a large part of Al-Nuhud Hospital in West Kordofan in wartorn Sudan’s south into a military command centre and barracks since their takeover of the city more than five months ago, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

The nongovernmental organisation said on Friday that the RSF, the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) bitter rival in the brutal three-year civil war, has been preventing the hospital from fulfilling its essential role in providing healthcare for the population.

“This military use of the health facility constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines civilians’ right to access treatment,” the statement on Facebook said, adding that some of the medical personnel in the city have been accused of cooperating with the military before fleeing the city.

“As a result, the hospital is suffering from a severe shortage of healthcare workers, leaving the remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet patients’ needs,” it added.

Since April 2023, the SAF and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediation has failed to end.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others, causing what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

Fleeing the horrors of el-Fasher

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s western Darfur region without their parents since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of el-Fasher last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila but that the real number was likely much higher.

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state – on October 26 after an 18-month siege that cut residents off from food, medicine and other critical supplies.

The paramilitary group has been accused of committing mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence in its takeover of the city. The Sudanese army has also been accused of committing atrocities during the war.

Washington’s truce proposal

The United States has recently presented Sudan’s warring parties with a proposal for a ceasefire, but neither side has formally accepted it.

The RSF unilaterally declared a cessation of hostilities on Monday in line with US wishes.

But on Tuesday, the SAF said it had repelled an attack on a base in Babnusa in West Kordofan state, the newest front line in the war.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace to the country.

“The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s honesty and work with us – and those in the region who genuinely seek peace – to end this war,” Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.

Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed over the course of the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

Trump took a public interest in the war for the first time last week, promising he would end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman urged him to get involved.

Humanitarian group says at least 400 children reached Tawila without their parents after Rapid Support Forces’ advance.

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s western Darfur region without their parents since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of el-Fasher last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila but that the real number was likely much higher.

“Children are reaching Tawila exhausted and deeply distressed, often after days of walking through the desert,” the group said.

“Many arrive terrified of the armed groups they fled from or might have encountered on the road. Many became separated from their parents during the chaos of flight, while others’ parents are believed to have gone missing, been detained or killed.”

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state – on October 26 after an 18-month siege that cut residents off from food, medicine and other critical supplies.

The paramilitary group, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, has been accused of committing mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence in its takeover of the city.

The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.

But United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in mid-November that the “atrocities” that have unfolded in el-Fasher “constitute the gravest of crimes”.

More than 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF’s takeover last month, according to the latest figures from the UN, with many seeking refuge in nearby Chad.

Meanwhile, the NRC said on Thursday that it had registered at least 15,000 new arrivals in Tawila, about 60km (37 miles) from el-Fasher, since October 26. More than 200 children are being registered each day on average, it added.

Nidaa, a teacher with the humanitarian group’s education programme in Tawila, said children arrive showing “signs of acute trauma”.

“When we first started our classes, some of the children could not speak at all when they arrived. Others were waking up with nightmares,” she said. “They describe hiding for hours, travelling at night to avoid attacks, and becoming separated from family in the chaos.”

Fears of human trafficking

Humanitarian groups have said the already heavily populated displacement camps in Tawila are becoming overwhelmed with the influx of new arrivals from el-Fasher and its surrounding villages.

The Sudanese American Physicians Association estimated in early November that more than 650,000 internally displaced people from el-Fasher and other parts of Darfur had sought refuge in Tawila amid months of fighting in the region.

Nearly three-quarters of displaced residents – 74 percent – lived in informal sites without adequate infrastructure, the group said in a November 5 report, while less than 10 percent of displaced households had reliable access to water or latrines.

“These conditions mean Tawila has effectively become a stand-alone crisis epicentre, not merely an overflow from el-Fasher,” the report said.

At the same time, a group of UN experts warned on Thursday that the deteriorating situation in the region has opened Sudanese women and girls up to a heightened risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Displaced children are also increasingly vulnerable to being recruited to fight in the escalating conflict, the experts said.

“We are deeply concerned at the alarming reports of human trafficking since the takeover of el-Fasher and surrounding areas by the [RSF],” they said in a statement.

“Women and girls have been abducted in RSF-controlled areas, and women, unaccompanied and separated children are at elevated risk of sexual violence and sexual exploitation.”

Noting that families have been left without shelter, humanitarian aid, and access to basic services, including healthcare and education, the experts called for “urgent action to end the human rights violations driving this suffering”.

Last week, 42 migrants were presumed to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their dinghy set sail off the Libyan coast.

At least 29 of them were Sudanese refugees who fled the catastrophic civil war in their country between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

Since erupting in April 2023, the Sudan war has caused the largest displacement crisis in the world.

Nearly 13 million people have been uprooted from their homes and more than four million have fled to neighbouring countries, such as Chad, Egypt and Libya.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 86,000 Sudanese nationals are registered as asylum seekers or refugees in Libya – a 60,000 uptick compared with before the war.

As more Sudanese attempt to reach Europe from Libya, this is everything you need to know about their plight.

How many Sudanese asylum seekers have reached Europe since the war started?

From April 2023 to January 2024, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) registered nearly 10,000 asylum applications from Sudanese nationals across the European Union – nearly twice as high as the previous year.

While figures for 2025 have not yet been published, the growing number of Sudanese nationals arriving in Libya suggests that more people are aiming to reach Europe as their final destination.

“I hope to soon take the journey across the sea to Europe,” Hamid, a Sudanese refugee from Khartoum, told Al Jazeera from Libya, where he arrived earlier this year.

“Hopefully, God will make the journey safe,” he added with resignation.

How are Sudanese asylum seekers treated in Europe?

Only a minority of the 10,000 Sudanese asylum seekers have been granted protection so far, with the rest either rejected or waiting for a ruling.

In general, life has not been easy for many young Sudanese men after reaching Europe.

Some EU states are using anti-smuggling laws to criminalise young men for steering the small and overcrowded boats that smugglers put them in.

In Greece, more than 200 Sudanese minors and young men between the ages of 15 and 21 are facing smuggling charges.

Some have already been convicted and sentenced to decades or life in prison, pushing their lawyers to appeal.

Migration experts have long explained that vulnerable youth often agree to “steer” boats in exchange for a discounted price from smugglers, who often charge thousands of dollars from destitute asylum seekers looking for safety.

Does Europe share responsibility for the crisis in Sudan?

The RSF, which has committed countless atrocities throughout the war, emerged from the nomadic “Arab” government-linked Popular Defence Forces, known as the Janjaweed militias, that spearheaded a brutal campaign in the far western region of Darfur at the turn of the millennium.

Those militias were later accused of carrying out countless war crimes and crimes against humanity against mainly sedentary “non-Arab” communities.

Many legal scholars and human rights groups believe the atrocities may have amounted to genocide.

Yet in 2013, Sudan’s then-President Omar al-Bashir repackaged many of the Popular Defence Forces militias into the RSF.

The RSF, looking to acquire international legitimacy, quickly portrayed itself as a possible partner in the EU’s mission to “manage migration” in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

In 2014, the EU announced that it was launching the “Khartoum Process”, an initiative that strengthened cooperation between the EU and East African nations to counter irregular migration.

About $200m was pumped into Sudan over the next five years for this purpose.

According to research carried out by Sudan expert Suliman Baldo in 2017, a portion of this money went to strengthening the judiciary and law enforcement and may have possibly been diverted towards the RSF.

The EU has long denied that it financed the RSF in any capacity.

When Sudan’s security forces – including the RSF – killed more than 120 pro-democracy protesters in the capital Khartoum on June 3, 2019, the EU suspended all migration cooperation.

At the time, Sudan expert Alex de Waal said the EU’s reaction was “basically an admission of guilt” that the RSF had benefitted politically and financially from the Khartoum Process.

RSF is burning and burying bodies near a university, mosque, camp for the displaced people, and hospital in el-Fasher, Yale University researchers say.

The government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have recaptured two territories in the North Kordofan state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the paramilitary group continues burning and burying bodies in Darfur’s el-Fasher to hide evidence of mass killings.

Footage circulating online this week showed army soldiers holding assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades celebrating their takeovers of Kazqil and Um Dam Haj Ahmed in North Kordofan, the state where intense fighting is expected to rage over the coming weeks.

Kazqil, which had fallen to the RSF in late October, is located south of el-Obeid, the strategic capital city of the state in central Sudan, which the paramilitary group is trying to capture from the army.

أبطال القوات المسلحة من داخل ” كازقيل” بولاية شمال كردفان#السودان #السودان_ينتصر pic.twitter.com/wVflEodHK5

— Sudan News 🇸🇩 (@Sudan_tweet) November 15, 2025

The fighting between the two rival generals leading the army and the paramilitary group, which started in April 2023, has increasingly turned east over the past weeks as the RSF solidifies control over the western parts of the war-torn country, now in its third year of a brutal civil war.

The fighting, fuelled by arms supplies from the region, has created what the United Nations has called the largest displacement crisis in the world. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, and tens of thousands have been killed and injured. The UN has also confirmed starvation in parts of the country.

The RSF said last week it accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States and other mediators, with the announcement coming after an international outcry over atrocities committed by the paramilitary group in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan.

But the army has refused to agree to a ceasefire under the current battle lines, and both sides have continued to amass troops and equipment in the central parts of the country to engage in more battles.

The RSF launched an offensive against the Kordofan region at the same time as it took el-Fasher late last month, seizing the town of Bara in North Kordofan state as a crucial link between Darfur and central Sudan. The army had recaptured the town just two months earlier.

Satellite images reveal mass graves

More than two and a half weeks after fully capturing el-Fasher from the army, the RSF has continued to dispose of bodies in large numbers.

An analysis of satellite imagery released by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) on Friday exposed four new locations where paramilitary fighters are disposing of bodies in and around el-Fasher.

Activities consistent with body disposal are visible at the University of Alfashir, a structure on the edge of Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people, a neighbourhood near al-Hikma Mosque, and at Saudi Hospital, where RSF forces massacred hundreds.

The HRL could not conclude how many people the RSF had killed or how quickly, but it said the observations are alarming, given the fact that the whereabouts of many civilian residents remain unknown.

🚨ATROCITY ALERT🚨@HRL_YaleSPH has identified four new locations where the RSF is disposing of bodies in and around El Fasher. #KeepEyesonSudan

🛰️@Vantortechhttps://t.co/y5gaMRlBm2 pic.twitter.com/OsCVb1ihTf

— Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at YSPH (@HRL_YaleSPH) November 14, 2025

Nathaniel Raymond, the lead researcher of that report, said an estimated 150,000 civilians are unaccounted for, and daily monitoring of city streets shows no activity in markets or water points, but only RSF patrols and many bodies.

“We can see them charred. So the question is, where are the people and where are the bodies coming from?” he told Al Jazeera.

Raymond said the evidence also includes numerous videos released by the RSF fighters themselves, who are “the most prodigious producers of evidence about their own crimes”.

UN rights chief urges countries to ‘stand up against atrocities’ committed by paramilitary RSF in takeover of the city.

The United Nations’s top human rights body has ordered a probe into abuses in Sudan’s el-Fasher, where mass killings have been reported since the city fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

During a special session in Geneva on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution ordering the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to urgently investigate violations in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

The resolution also called on the investigative team to “identify, where possible” suspected perpetrators in an effort to ensure they are “held accountable”.

The move comes weeks after the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, took full control of el-Fasher on October 26 after an 18-month siege on the city.

Nearly 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF’s takeover, with displaced Sudanese civilians saying they faced indiscriminate attacks and sexual violence, among other abuses. Many said they saw dead bodies lining the streets.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the council on Friday that the “atrocities that are unfolding in el-Fasher were foreseen and preventable” and “constitute the gravest of crimes”.

He said the UN had warned that the fall of el-Fasher “would result in a bloodbath”.

“So 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,” Turk said.

“The international community has 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.”

Violence spreading

The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.

But the UN, human rights groups and other observers have said evidence suggests that mass killings were committed by the paramilitary group.

Sudanese medics have also warned that the RSF appears to be trying to bury the bodies of those killed in el-Fasher in an effort to conceal what happened.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are believed to remain trapped in the city, prompting the head of the UN’s migration agency this week to urgently call for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to provide aid to those civilians.

During Friday’s Human Rights Council session, Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN’s independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, described examples of rape, killing and torture and said a comprehensive investigation is required to establish the full picture.

She said RSF forces had turned el-Fasher University, where thousands of civilians had been sheltering, “into a killing ground”.

Meanwhile, Turk warned that violence is “surging” to the neighbouring Kordofan region, where bombardments, blockades and forced displacement have been reported. “Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur,” he said.

The council, which is made up of 47 UN member countries, does not have the power to force countries or others to comply, but can shine a spotlight on rights violations and help document them for possible use in places like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In early November, the ICC said it was “taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in el-Fasher to preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions” as part of an ongoing investigation into abuses committed in Darfur since April 2023.

IOM chief calls for ceasefire to allow aid groups to reach Sudanese civilians trapped in war-torn Darfur region.

The head of the United Nations’ migration agency has called for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to help tens of thousands of civilians trapped in el-Fasher, the city in Sudan’s Darfur region that fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that “the primary concern is getting access” to residents who have been largely cut off from humanitarian aid and services in el-Fasher.

“When humanitarian actors are themselves at risk – when they’re killed, when they’re shot, when they’re detained – we can’t get the people what they need to survive,” Pope said.

“The primary issue is ensuring that there is a ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor, so that aid groups can bring in that aid to the civilians who are very much caught in the middle.”

Human rights groups have accused the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, of committing widescale massacres in its capture of el-Fasher on October 26.

While thousands of residents remain stuck in el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, nearly 90,000 others have fled since the RSF’s takeover, according to the latest IOM figures.

On Wednesday, Pope said displaced families have described dangerous journeys out of el-Fasher.

“They spoke about seeing dead bodies as they walked. They spoke about having to create makeshift trenches to avoid being shot at, or being harmed by the drones. They spoke of unspeakable, unbearable, sexual trauma [and] sexual abuse,” she said.

“The stories are really harrowing, and they’re happening now even as we speak.”

Her comments come a day after the IOM warned that humanitarian aid efforts in Sudan were “on the brink of collapse” due to continued insecurity and a lack of funding.

“Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid,” the agency said in a statement, noting that violence is also spreading to other parts of the country.

Nearly 39,000 people have fled intense fighting in North Kordofan state, east of el-Fasher, between October 26 and November 9, the IOM said.

Meanwhile, Anna Mutavati, the regional director for East and Southern Africa at UN Women, told reporters this week that women and girls who fled el-Fasher now face serious threats of sexual violence in displacement camps around the city.

“What the women tell us is that … every step that they’ve taken – to fetch water, to collect firewood, or to stand in a food line – is carrying a high risk of sexual violence,” Mutavati said during a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” she added.

“Women’s bodies … have just become a crime scene in Sudan.”

In 2019, a Sudanese team of jiu-jitsu athletes set out on an extraordinary quest: to travel by land from Sudan to Kenya, despite having no funding and limited resources, to compete in the LionHeart Nairobi Open.

Together members of the Muqatel Training Center for martial arts travelled across three countries, carrying not just their hopes and dreams, but the spirit of a revolution that reshaped Sudan.

Journey to Kenya is a documentary short about resilience, unity and determination — a powerful reminder that dreams can transcend borders.

A film by Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmed, produced by In Deep Visions.

The Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are collecting bodies after the deadly takeover of North Darfur capital, US researcher says.

A researcher at Yale University in the United States says the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are digging mass graves in el-Fasher, the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region that has seen mass killings and displacement since the RSF took over last month.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale’s School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the RSF “have begun to dig mass graves and to collect bodies throughout the city”.

“They are cleaning up the massacre,” Raymond said.

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on October 26, after the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been fighting the paramilitary group for control of Sudan since April 2023.

More than 70,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas since the RSF’s takeover, according to the United Nations, while witnesses and human rights groups have reported cases of “summary executions”, sexual violence and massacres of civilians.

A report from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab on October 28 also found evidence of “mass killings” since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, including apparent pools of blood that were visible in satellite imagery.

UN officials also warned this week that thousands of people are believed to be trapped in el-Fasher.

“The current insecurity continues to block access, preventing the delivery of life-saving assistance to those trapped in the city without food, water and medical care,” Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, a senior UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official in Sudan, said.

Sudanese journalist Abdallah Hussain explained that, before the RSF’s full takeover, el-Fasher was already reeling from an 18-month siege imposed by the paramilitary group.

“No aid was allowed to access the city, and no healthcare facilities [were] operating,” Hussain told Al Jazeera from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday. “Now it’s getting even worse for the citizens who remain trapped.”

Amid global condemnation, the RSF and its supporters have tried to downplay the atrocities committed in el-Fasher, accusing allied armed groups of being responsible.

The RSF’s leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, has also promised an investigation.

But Raymond at the Humanitarian Research Lab said: “if they want to actually have an investigation, then they need to withdraw from the city [and] let UN personnel and the Red Cross and humanitarians enter … and go house-to-house looking to see who’s still alive”.

“At this point, we can’t let the RSF investigate themselves,” he said.

Raymond added that, based on UN figures and what can be seen on the ground in el-Fasher, “more people could have died [in 10 days]… than have died in the past two years of the war in Gaza”.

“That’s what we’re talking about. That’s not hyperbole,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that thousands of people need emergency assistance.

More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.