UN warns Sudan’s Kordofan faces mass atrocities as fighting spreads

The United Nations has warned that the Kordofan region of Sudan could face another wave of mass atrocities as fierce fighting between rival armed forces threatens a humanitarian catastrophe.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday that history was “repeating itself” in Kordofan following last month’s fall of el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, where warnings of impending violence were largely ignored by the international community before widespread killings occurred.

“It is truly shocking to see history repeating itself in Kordofan so soon after the horrific events in el-Fasher,” Turk said, urging global powers to prevent the region from suffering a similar fate.

Since late October, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces captured Bara, in North Kordofan state, the UN has documented at least 269 civilian deaths from aerial bombardment, artillery fire and summary killings.

Communication blackouts across the region mean the actual toll is possibly far higher, with reports emerging of revenge attacks, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence and forced recruitment of children.

The RSF claimed control of the West Kordofan city of Babnusa earlier this week, with footage showing its fighters moving through the military base there. The army denied that the city had fallen.

The Sudan Doctors Network said it was “closely monitoring, with concern, developments in Babnusa,” and urged the international community to pressure the RSF to allow civilians to evacuate.

Hospitals have been overrun in the area, with most of al-Nuhud Hospital in West Kordofan now out of action.

The World Health Organization says nearly 1,700 health workers and patients have been killed in Sudan since the conflict began.

Key cities, including Kadugli and Dilling, are now under siege, with famine confirmed in Kadugli and looming in Dilling. All warring parties are blocking humanitarian access.

More than 45,000 people have fled their homes in Kordofan in recent weeks as the violence has spread across the vast central region.

“We cannot remain silent in front of yet another man-made catastrophe,” Turk said, demanding that armed groups allow life-saving aid to reach those facing starvation.

The fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, a powerful paramilitary group. The war has since killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people across the country.

Following the fall of el-Fasher, the last major Darfur city under the army and its allies’ control, attention has shifted to Kordofan in central Sudan.

Kordofan’s strategic importance makes it a key territory for both sides. The region sits between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and government-held territory in the east and north, serving as a vital corridor that linnks the warring factions’ heartlands.

Control of major cities like El Obeid would give the RSF a direct route towards the capital Khartoum, which government forces recaptured earlier this year.

Before el-Fasher fell in November, the UN issued urgent warnings about potential atrocities. Those alerts went largely unheeded.

After the city’s capture, mass killings ensued, with corpses visible from satellite imagery, prompting UN chief Antonio Guterres to describe it as a “crime scene”.

Amnesty International has since called for war crimes investigations, and the European Union has placed sanctions on Abdelrahim Dagalo, the RSF’s deputy and brother of the group’s chief, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti”.

Turk urged countries with influence over the warring parties to halt arms flows and push for an immediate ceasefire.

“Have we not learned our lessons from the past?” he said. “We cannot stand idly by and allow more Sudanese to become victims of horrific human rights violations.”