The long-running civil war in Sudan began on 15 April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It continues to rumble on, claiming innocent life after innocent life.
As of October 2025, it is estimated that 150 000 people have been killed and as many as 8.8 million people internally displaced within Sudan, and a further 3.5 million refugees forced across international borders.
Massacre in El Fasher
Much of the attention in recent weeks has turned to the siege of the EL Fasher (otherwise known as Al Fashir) in North Sudan. It was there that a massacre recently took place which saw at least 53 people, including 15 women and 14 children killed in an attack on a displacement shelter.
Sky News reported that:
“The Sudan Doctors’ Network said Sudanese paramilitaries were behind the shelling attack, which also wounded another 21 people, including five more children.”
The Sudanese Doctor’s network is a group of medical professionals tracking the Sudanese civil war, and one of their spokespeople described the attack as a “massacre.” The Network also went on to say that:
“The strike by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit the al Arqam Home, which shelters displaced families in Al Fashir, the capital of North Darfur province.”
The deadly attack, said to have taken place late on Friday 10th, was the latest attack on the besieged city, which for months has been in the middle of the war between the SAF and the RSF paramilitary forces. A statement for the Network said:
“This massacre represents a continuation of the scorched-earth policy practised by the Rapid Support Forces against civilians, in flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
Heartbreaking
I asked Newcastle-based Sudanese Isra Mohammad, for her thoughts on what happened at El Fasher. Isra commented:
“What happened in El Fasher is extremely heartbreaking and horrific. The pain and injustice the people of Sudan are ensuring including victims’ families is indescribable. The deliberate killing of innocent civilians and senseless violence against women is criminal under international law as well as a crime against humanity. The RSF need to be held accountable and responsible for their crimes. The international community should not turn a blind eye to their ongoing atrocities.”
When will it end?
And so, it goes on. Shelling after shelling, massacre after massacre, death after death, while hunger stalks El Fasher claiming victim after victim. And all the time, the international community watches and does… nothing. Or at least next to nothing.
It is now over six months since the United Arab Emirates were accused of being complicit in genocide in the Sudanese Civil War and yet so much of the media of the world and so many of the world’s powerful leaders continue to turn a blind eye to what is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis today.
How many more massacres will it take and how many more children have to die, before the international community does the right thing and intervenes to stop the deadly civil war in Sudan?
Avaaz
Avaaz is asking people to email the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO; link here) and make the following points:
- ‘Thank you for highlighting the plight of people across Sudan during your first week as Foreign Secretary.’
- ‘The people in El Fasher, Darfur, cannot wait – fighters are advancing, the city may fall any moment, and experts fear mass atrocities when that happens.’
- ‘Diplomatic pressure on the United Arab Emirates who are backing the fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has helped prevent a massacre before. I urge you to use your power, now.’
- ‘Please pick up the phone to your UAE counterpart, demand safe, voluntary passage for civilians as well as humanitarian access, and make it clear that the UK will be watching closely what the RSF is doing in El Fasher (with the support of the UAE).’
You can help the children of Sudan via Emergency Appeal at UNICEF, and via the Emergency Appeal: Famine in Sudan at AVAAZ.
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