Sudan’s brutal civil war is intensifying, leaving civilians to bear the heaviest burden as the conflict enters its third year. The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has warned in a new report that civilian deaths and ethnic violence have risen sharply during the first half of 2025, with the number of fatalities already nearing last year’s total. According to the report, 3,384 civilians were killed in the first six months of the year, representing 80 percent of all civilian deaths recorded in 2024. OHCHR chief Volker Turk described the situation as “disastrous,” stressing that atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed with impunity.
The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Once concentrated in Darfur and southern Sudan, the violence has now spread to previously calmer regions in the north and east, with the increasing use of drones in attacks on civilian areas. The OHCHR report highlighted widespread sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and retaliatory assaults against civilians, often carried out along ethnic lines, raising fears of deeper divisions that threaten long-term stability.
The humanitarian toll continues to mount. On Friday, the RSF launched a drone strike on a mosque in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, killing at least 43 civilians, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Network. The attack, which reduced parts of the mosque to rubble, was condemned as a “heinous crime” that violated humanitarian and religious values as well as international law. Local Resistance Committees in el-Fasher reported further RSF strikes targeting displacement shelters and residential neighborhoods, leaving women, the elderly, and children among the victims.
Despite diplomatic efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, attempts to broker a ceasefire between Sudan’s army and the RSF have so far failed. The UN has warned that without urgent protection for civilians and unrestricted humanitarian aid, many more lives will be lost as famine spreads and violence deepens. With the country effectively split army forces holding the north, east, and central regions, while the RSF controls much of the west and south Sudan remains trapped in a devastating war that shows no signs of ending.
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