Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Tuesday that the war in Sudan is “spiraling out of control” after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the besieged city of El Fasher in North Darfur, a city already suffering from famine and months of heavy fighting.
Speaking from Qatar, Guterres issued an urgent appeal for an immediate ceasefire in the two-year conflict, which he described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. “Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped under siege,” he said. “People are dying from hunger, disease, and violence.”
The UN chief’s remarks came amid alarming reports of atrocities following the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher last week. According to credible accounts cited by the United Nations, widespread executions have taken place since RSF fighters entered the city.
Humanitarian organizations and local medical sources reported that RSF units killed more than 450 people at a hospital and carried out mass executions targeting civilians along ethnic lines. There have also been reports of sexual violence committed against women and girls during the group’s advance.
El Fasher, long viewed as the last stronghold of Sudan’s national army in the Darfur region, has been under siege for months, with food and medical supplies cut off by ongoing hostilities. The city’s fall marks a major escalation in the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between rival generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.”
Since then, the fighting has devastated much of Sudan, displacing more than 10 million people, pushing millions to the brink of starvation, and drawing warnings of potential mass atrocities from international observers.
Guterres renewed his call for all parties to protect civilians and allow unrestricted humanitarian access, emphasizing that continued inaction would deepen what he called “an unfolding catastrophe for the people of Sudan and a stain on the conscience of the international community.”
