Over 500 civilians slaughtered in Sudan civil war, UN says

The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group killed 542 civilians in Sudan’s North Darfur region over the last three weeks, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Thursday. The actual death toll is likely even higher, Türk said. RSF killed 40 people three days ago in attacks on the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people and the besieged city of El Fasher, currently held by Sudan’s military.

Türk also said both the RSF and Sudan Armed Forces had recently carried out extrajudicial executions of dozens of people.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called on the international community to help end the destruction and suffering there.

What solutions did he have in mind? Guterres didn’t elaborate on what he was asking UN member states to do. But the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, on Wednesday said humanitarian needs exceed funding, with half of Sudan’s population hungry. Nkweta-Salami shared a UN article that said the United States previously contributed almost half of the UN’s aid to Sudan before cuts this year. Without American funding, most of Sudan’s community kitchens have shut down, the UN said.

When did the conflict in Sudan start? The internal war began in April 2023 when the RSF and previously government-affiliated troops could not agree on how to share power after jointly orchestrating a 2019 coup. The fighting has internally displaced more than 8.9 million people and caused about 3 million others to flee to other countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Both sides have committed war crimes against civilians, according to a UN fact-finding mission. Both sides deny the UN’s allegations.

Dig deeper: Read Kara Barlow and Onize Oduah’s report on increased sexual violence in Sudan.