UN warns of an ‘imminent risk of mass atrocities’ in Sudan’s Kordofan

Submission statement: The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in rebellion against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), is rapidly progressing in the central province of North Kordofan and closing in on its capital, El-Obeid, raising fears of imminent large-scale massacres of civilians.

Located in central Sudan between Darfur and Khartoum, North Kordofan has been one of the major battlegrounds of the Sudanese Civil War that started on April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out between the RSF and the SAF for the control of the country, four years after a popular revolution ended Al-Bashir's Islamist dictatorship, and two years after the military subverted the democratic transition by seizing power from the civilian PM, Abdullah Hamdok.

Sudan's civil war is the world's deadliest conflict and has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, with more than 12 million refugees and 25 million people under severe food insecurity – including famine conditions in some areas -, widespread destruction of infrastructure, economic and social collapse, and general lawlessness. The death toll is unknown due to the total breakdown of Sudanese society, but is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands.

The war has seen significant foreign involvement on both sides: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt and Turkey have provided assistance to the SAF, which remains the internationally recognized government of Sudan, while Chad, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates have provided support to the RSF. The UAE's involvement in arming and funding the RSF, described as a genocidal group by the US, has been extensively documented, refuting Emirati denials.

In late October 2025, the RSF seized Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, after an extensive and destructive months-long siege that triggered famine conditions among the besieged. Over the weeks following the fall of Al-Fasher, the RSF conducted the worst massacre of civilians since the Rwandan genocide, killing at least 60,000-100,000 civilians in what the UN described as "hallmarks of genocide", leaving pools of blood and piles of corpse visible from space.

The RSF's progress around El-Obeid – pre-war population of 500,000 – is renewing fears that a repeat of the Al-Fasher massacre will unfold in the coming weeks, prompting desperate calls from UN officials to spare the population of the city, increasingly unable to flee their homes.