UN warns genocide risk growing as Sudan civilian death toll surges

Nearly three years of war in Sudan have brought a dramatic rise in civilian deaths, widespread sexual violence and a growing risk of genocidal violence spreading beyond Darfur, the UN Human Rights Council announced this week, according to senior United Nations (UN) officials. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the UN’s Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, both addressed the Council’s first session of the year in Geneva, painting a devastating picture of what Türk called “yet another chapter in the chronicle of cruelty.”

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has intensified sharply, with civilian killings rising more than two and a half times in 2025 compared to the previous year. At least 11,300 civilians were killed last year — nearly triple the 2024 figure — while thousands more remain missing or unidentified. Schools, hospitals, markets, religious sites and critical infrastructure have all been attacked, often in densely populated areas and without warning.

Sexual violence has been used systematically to terrorise communities. OHCHR documented over 500 victims in 2025 alone, including cases of rape, gang rape, sexual torture and slavery. Türk said that during his visit to Sudan earlier this year he personally heard harrowing testimonies from at least ten survivors. “The bodies of Sudanese women and girls have been weaponised,” he told the Council.

The RSF’s seizure of the Zamzam displacement camp and its offensive on El Fasher in North Darfur unleashed what Türk described as “carnage that claimed thousands of lives,” including a massacre at El-Saudi hospital where more than 460 people were killed. Othman said the situation around El Fasher “exhibits clear hallmarks of genocide” against the Zaghawa and Fur communities, backed by video evidence of executions carried out with ethnic slurs. Both officials warned that these patterns of violence risk repeating as fighting shifts toward the Kordofan region, where drone strikes and blockades have already killed or injured nearly 600 civilians since the start of the year.

Othman closed with a stark warning: “Without urgent protection and credible accountability, the risk of further genocidal violence remains grave and ongoing.” Both officials called for immediate humanitarian access, an end to weapons supplies fuelling the conflict, and genuine accountability for the crimes being committed by all parties in Sudan.