Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its support for Sudan’s territorial unity and integrity, denouncing “criminal attacks” by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in North and South Kordofan states that have killed dozens of people, including women and children.
In a statement on Saturday, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “foreign interference” by “some parties” in Sudan, including the “continued influx of illegal weapons, mercenaries and foreign fighters” for the continuation of the nearly three-year-old war.
The statement did not specify the parties, though.
It came a day after the Sudan Doctors Network, a humanitarian group, said a drone attack by the RSF on a vehicle transporting displaced families in North Kordofan killed at least 24 people, including eight children.
The attack followed a series of drone raids on humanitarian aid convoys and fuel trucks across North Kordofan, including an assault on a World Food Programme convoy on Friday that killed at least one person.
Fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s army has intensified across Kordofan in recent months following the fall of el-Fasher to the paramilitary group in October. The nearly three-year-long conflict has killed an estimated 40,000 people and pushed more than 21 million — almost half of Sudan’s population — into acute food shortages.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday the deadly RSF attacks “are completely unjustifiable and constitute flagrant violations of all humanitarian norms and relevant international agreements”.
The ministry demanded that “RSF immediately cease these violations and adhere to its moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure the delivery of relief aid to those in need in accordance with international humanitarian law” and a ceasefire deal agreed by the warring parties in Jeddah in 2023.
It added that “some parties” were fuelling the conflict by sending in weapons and fighters, despite “these parties’ claim of supporting a political solution” in Sudan.
The statement comes amid allegations by the Sudanese government that the United Arab Emirates has been arming and funding the RSF. Sudan filed a case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice last year, accusing it of “complicity in genocide” committed by the RSF against the Masalit community in West Darfur state.
The UAE has denied the allegations.
Separately, Saudi Arabia has also accused the UAE of backing the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen. The STC, initially part of the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government of Yemen, launched a major offensive last December in the country’s Hadramout and al-Mahra provinces, seeking to establish a separate state.
The offensive resulted in a split in Yemen’s internationally-backed government, and prompted Saudi Arabia to launch deadly raids targeting the STC.
The UAE pulled out its troops from Yemen following the Saudi allegation, saying it supports Saudi Arabia’s security.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE were members of the Arab military coalition, formed to confront the Houthis, who took full control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2015.
Sudan is a country with a long memory: Our history stretches back to the biblical Kingdom of Kush, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations. The war now waged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is unlike anything we’ve ever faced. It is tearing the fabric of our society, uprooting millions, and placing the entire region at risk. Even so, Sudanese look to allies in the region and in Washington with hope. Sudan is fighting not only for its survival, but for a just peace that can only be achieved with the support of partners who recognize the truth of how the war began and what is required to end it.
Twelve-year-old Abdiwahab – not his real name – sobs as he recounts what happened to him as he escaped from the western Sudanese city of el-Fasher.
The young boy left el-Fasher on Sunday as it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group that has been fighting a two-and-a-half-year civil war against the army.
In a video received by the BBC, his face reflects deep sorrow and fatigue, his voice low as he describes being assaulted “many times” by RSF fighters.
Fearing reprisal attacks from RSF fighters, Abdiwahab had joined a wave of people – including some of his family – trying to get out.
The UN estimates that 60,000 have managed to get out of el-Fasher with many narrating horrendous stories of atrocities, including rape.
After three days of walking Abdiwahab reached the relative safety of Tawila – an 80km (50-mile) journey – but he arrived on his own.
”I left the city with my father and siblings but because of the chaos we were separated, I came to Tawila alone,” he says on the video.
He was assaulted on the way and accused of being involved in espionage.
“I walked along the road, and on the road, [the RSF] caught me, many times. They beat me and hit me, saying, ‘this little boy is a spy’.”
This chimes with other accounts of how men and boys are especially at risk as they face arbitrary arrest, violence and summary execution.
Abdiwahab says that RSF fighters had already taken his mother and one of his sisters about a month ago, and he does not know if they are still alive.
Ali, not his real name, who is now a volunteer aid worker after fleeing el-Fasher himself a fortnight ago, was the one who filmed Abdiwahab’s account.
He is stationed at the entrance to Tawila where a temporary camp has been established and where new arrivals gather before being relocated to permanent camps inside the town.
In a voice note to the BBC explaining the context, Ali’s words were almost drowned out by the noise and chaos at the camp.
“[Abdiwahab] keeps asking me about his parents. I decided to take him home until we found them,” Ali says.
He noticed how the boy was traumatised, fearing that any light appearing at night was an RSF vehicle coming to get him.
“He saw a light in the distance and held me tight, screaming. He froze.”
Aid agencies are overwhelmed by the number of people who need help [Reuters]
Ali says each new arrival to the camp carries a story of survival and despair.
There are many unaccompanied minors, including children who lost their parents on the road, coming in every day.
“Just yesterday, twin children around 10 years old arrived with a woman who said their parents had died on the way,” the volunteer aid worker says.
“The situation is terrifying. People continue arriving with many conditions, some with injuries and malnutrition. Those who arrived are begging us to go and save the people on the road, because many are dying trying to come to Tawila,” Ali says.
Survivors spoke of “passing dead bodies scattered along the road and hearing the cries of the wounded calling for help”.
But even relief work has become deadly.
Ali says the organisations operating in Tawila are afraid to leave the town after five Red Crescent volunteers were killed in another state earlier this week.
“They are waiting for assurances and confirmation that the situation is safe,” he says.
Many mothers arriving in Tawila are in desperate need of food, water and medical help, according to the charity Save the Children.
Some women reported being attacked by armed men on motorbikes and robbed as they fled.
“Women who managed to escape with their children as fighting raged made it to Tawila without food or water. They are now entirely dependent on already stretched humanitarian assistance,” the aid agency said in a statement.
The UN’s refugee agency has said it was struggling to find enough shelter and food for civilians seeking refuge in the town.
But not everyone is making it out of el-Fasher, where there have been reports of mass killings.
This week, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted to “violations” in the city and said they would be investigated. A senior UN official has said that the RSF had given notice that they had arrested some suspects.
Estimates vary as to how many civilians are still strapped in the city.
Save the Children puts it at more than 260,000 people, including an estimated 130,000 children, who have to contend with famine-like conditions, the collapse of health services and no safe route out.
[BBC]
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The Rapid Support Forces militia reportedly killed hundreds of civilians at the main hospital in el-Fasher, days after it captured the Sudanese city, the head of the UN’s health agency says.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reported killing of 460 people at the hospital.
Earlier, the Sudan Doctors’ Network said that on Tuesday RSF fighters had “cold bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present”.
It gave no casualty figures, but said medical facilities in the city had been “transformed into human slaughterhouses”.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also accused the RSF of kidnapping six medics – including four doctors, a pharmacist and a nurse – and reportedly demanding ransoms in excess of $150,000 (£114,000) for their release.
Tuesday’s attack on Saudi Hospital was also reported by the el-Fasher Resistance Committee, a group of local activists, which said there was “a horrifying silence” afterwards.
The city had been the army’s last stronghold in the Darfur region, and was captured by the RSF on Sunday after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment.
Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, the RSF and allied Arab militia in Darfur have been accused of targeting people from non-Arab ethnic groups – allegations the RSF denies.
With the fall of el-Fasher, the UN, activists and aid agencies have expressed fear over the fate of the estimated 250,000 people trapped in the city, many from non-Arab communities.
A communications blackout has made it difficult to confirm what is happening.
People arriving in Tawila have been describing the extreme violence they faced as they fled el-Fasher [AFP/Getty Images]
With the difficulties in getting reports from the ground, aid agencies say the full scale of the devastation in and around el-Fasher is only beginning to emerge.
Some people have managed to make the dangerous journey to the town of Tawila, about 60km (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, and described the extreme violence they faced.
“The shelling was so intense on Saturday that we had no choice but to flee el-Fashir,” one man told BBC Arabic’s Sudan Lifeline programme.
“Along the way, the RSF filmed us and we were beaten and insulted – and they stole what we had on the journey. A number of people were captured and ransoms were demanded for their release.
“Some of those who were taken were later executed. During the journey, many people were arrested, and we suffered greatly from hunger and thirst.”
Jan Egeland, a former top UN humanitarian official, told the BBC the situation was catastrophic.
“We have had massacres on top on all of those months of deprivation, starvation, no medical care,” he said.
“I think this is the worst place on Earth now; it’s the biggest humanitarian emergency on Earth and it happens in the dark, really – there has been far too little attention to what’s happening in Sudan.”
Dr Tedros said prior to the Saudi Hospital attack, the WHO had verified 185 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war, resulting in 1,204 deaths.
“All attacks on health care must stop immediately and unconditionally. All patients, health personnel and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law. Ceasefire!” he said.
The capture of el-Fasher effectively splits the country, with the RSF now in control of most of Darfur and much of neighbouring Kordofan and the army holding the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the Red Sea.
The two warring rivals had been allies – coming to power together in a coup in 2021 – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.
More about Sudan’s war from the BBC:
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Fears are mounting of mass killings in the key Sudanese city of el-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured it from government forces.
In a address on Monday evening, Sudan’s military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had approved the withdrawal of troops in response to the “systematic destruction and killing of civilians”.
The UN said there were credible reports of “summary executions”, while Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab referred to satellite imagery of “piles of bodies executed en masse”.
The RSF has denied accusations of killing civilians and targeting non-Arab ethnic groups, despite evidence presented by the UN and human rights organisations.
The fall of el-Fasher in the Darfur region could mark a significant turning point in Sudan’s civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023.
RSF fighters had been besieging el-Fasher for 18 months, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city and sparking a hunger crisis.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab told the BBC that since the city was captured, satellite images have shown “piles of bodies executed en masse, or shot by snipers attempting to breach” the city’s perimeter wall.
And in a post on X, the research group’s executive director described his shock at being able to see “apparent pools of blood” via satellite imagery.
“The horror, scale, and velocity of killing happening now [is] unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a quarter century of doing this work,” Nathaniel Raymond said.
Similarly, a UN humanitarian team in Sudan said it was “horrified” by reports of atrocities like “summary executions”, attacks on civilians along escape routes, sexual violence and house-to-house raids.
The Joint Force, an alliance of Darfuri armed groups supporting the military, said 2,000 civilians had been killed since the city fell. There is no independent confirmation of this.
Meanwhile, residents who managed to flee el-Fasher have told the BBC they are fearful and distressed after losing contact with relatives still stuck in the city.
One man said several of his relatives were “massacred”, but he has not been able to contact any surviving members of his family as communication lines have been cut since the RSF took over.
“They were gathered in one place and all killed. Now we have no idea what has happened to those who are still alive,” he said.
On Tuesday, the European Union said it wanted “all warring parties to de-escalate” the conflict, while the African Union condemned “alleged war crimes and ethnically targeted killings of civilians”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the only hospital still functioning, albeit partially, in el-Fasher was attacked on Sunday.
A nurse was reportedly killed in the assault, it added.
UN head Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” over the current situation in the city, and condemned the reported “violations of international humanitarian law”.
On Monday, after confirming the army had withdrawn from el-Fasher, Sudanese military chief Gen Burhan denounced inaction by the international community to end the RSF’s atrocities and vowed to fight “until this land is purified”.
“We can turn the tables every time, and we can return every land desecrated by these traitors to the nation’s fold,” he said.
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The UN has called for safe passage for trapped civilians out of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher after paramilitary fighters announced they had seized control of the army’s main base there.
Sudan’s military has not acknowledged loss of the site, which would be a significant victory for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the ongoing civil war.
UN chief António Guterres said the latest fighting marked a “terrible escalation” in the conflict, adding that the suffering of civilians was “unbearable”, AFP news agency reports.
El-Fasher is the last army foothold in the vast western region of Darfur, and has been besieged by the RSF and its allies for 18 months.
Heavy fighting has been reported since Saturday after RSF fighters captured the home of the North Darfur governor.
UN Human rights chief Volker Türk warned that the “risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in el-Fasher is mounting by the day”.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Network said the RSF had already carried out ethnically motivated killings of dozens of people in the city and had looted medical facilities and pharmacies.
Imran Abdullah, an adviser to the RSF commander, denied the group’s fighters were targeting civilians.
“On the contrary, they are the sole guarantor and protector of all those fleeing conflict areas, particularly in el-Fashir,” he told BBC Arabic’s Middle East Lifeline radio programme.
Social media videos verified by the BBC now show RSF combatants celebrating the capture of the army’s el-Fasher headquarters.
They claim to have seized full control of the city, but the army’s local allies say fighting continues in some parts.
Communication lines to el-Fasher have been almost completely cut off, while those who managed to flee are enduring harrowing hours filled with fear and uncertainty.
“We’ve witnessed many of our relatives being massacred – they were gathered in one place and all killed. Now we have no idea what has happened to those who are still alive,” one man told the BBC.
Another resident who fled said they were “extremely worried, as we still have no information about what has happened to the people inside el-Fasher – the children, the elderly, the wounded”.
The RSF has been accused of targeting civilians in airstrikes and trapping nearly 250,000 people after encircling the city with an earth wall, leaving many on the brink of starvation.
The city is one of the worst battlegrounds of Sudan’s civil war, leading the UN to call it an “epicentre of suffering”.
The UN’s top humanitarian official Tom Fletcher said he was deeply alarmed at the reports of civilian casualties.
“With fighters pushing further into the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified – shelled, starving, and without access to food, healthcare, or safety,” Fletcher said in a statement.
“Civilians must be allowed safe passage and be able to access aid,” he added.
The US has also called for safe passage and is trying to negotiate a ceasefire.
Taking el-Fasher would be a crucial comeback for the RSF after defeat in Khartoum.
But it is likely a sign that the civil war will continue, not end.
Sudan has been ravaged by conflict since 2023, after top commanders of the RSF and Sudanese army fell out and a vicious power struggle ensued.
More than 150,000 people have died across the country and about 12 million have fled their homes, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.
The army controls most of the north and the east, with el-Fasher being until now the last major urban centre in Darfur still held by government forces and its allies.
The RSF controls almost all of Darfur and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region.
The group has previously said that it hopes to form a rival government in el-Fasher when it assumes complete control.
Additional reporting by Natasha Booty, Damian Zane, Danai Nesta Kupemba and Peter Mwai
[BBC]
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The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says it has captured the army headquarters in the besieged city of el-Fasher, marking a turning point in the nation’s civil war.
The group said in a statement on social media that it had destroyed “huge military vehicles” and seized military equipment at the army’s 6th Division Headquarters.
BBC Verify has confirmed the authenticity of videos circulating on social media that show RSF fighters inside the army base.
The loss of the headquarters is a huge blow to government forces as el-Fasher is its last remaining foothold in the Darfur region, leaving the RSF effectively in control of the area. The army has yet to comment.
The RSF has surrounded el-Fasher for the last 18 months, with army positions and civilians under frequent bombardment. An estimated 300,000 people have been trapped by the fighting.
In August, satellite imagery showed a series of extensive earthen walls being constructed around the city, aimed at trapping people inside.
The RSF have been steadily advancing towards the 6th Infantry Division command – widely regarded as the army headquarters in the city – from several directions for weeks.
There are still some parts of el-Fasher under the control of the army and allied armed groups – but those are not expected to hold out for long now.
[BBC]
Hunger and disease has spread across the city as residents contend with constant bombardment and dwindling food and medical supplies.
UN investigators have accused the RSF of committing numerous crimes against humanity during the siege. The US has said the RSF has committed genocide against Darfur’s non-Arab population.
Sudan has been ravished by conflict since 2023, after top commanders of the RSF and Sudanese army fell out and a vicious power struggle ensued.
More than 150,000 people have died across the country and about 12 million have fled their homes, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.
The army controls most of the north and the east, with el-Fasher being until now the last major urban centre in Darfur still held by government forces and its allies.
The RSF controls almost all of Darfur and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region.
When the RSF assumes complete control of el-Fasher, it hopes to form a rival government there.
Additional reporting by Peter Mwai
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[Getty Images/BBC]
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There is a place in Sudan where it is almost possible to forget that a devastating civil war is going on.
Wrapped in bright colours and wearing plastic sandals, women in the country’s Jebel Marra mountains set off each morning on donkeys, children in tow, to tend the fields.
In a Mediterranean-like climate and using the fertile soil, they grow peanuts, oranges, apples and strawberries – rare crops for a country now facing one of the world’s worst hunger crises. Before the conflict, Jebel Marra’s organic oranges were particularly prized across the country for their juiciness.
The mountainous area in this part of the western Darfur region is dotted with green peaks, especially now as it is the rainy season.
The rest of Sudan teeters on the edge of disaster.
Across the country, as a result of the two-and-a-half years of fighting that has crippled agriculture, almost 25 million people – half the population – are facing severe food shortages, including more than 600,000 who are experiencing famine, according to the UN.
But in the lush highlands of Jebel Marra, the problem is not growing food – it is getting the produce out.
“We almost sell them for free and sometimes get rid of them on the way [to market], because they get rotten,” says Hafiz Ali, an orange vendor in Golo town, which is in the midst of the mountains in Central Darfur state.
The insecurity and the poor state of the roads make transportation almost impossible.
People in Jebel Marra are trying to carry on with their lives as normal despite the conflict elsewhere in the country [Zeinab Mohammed Salih]
Jebel Marra is the last remaining territory controlled by the Sudan Liberation Army – Abdulwahid (SLA-AW). This armed group has remained neutral in the current war. It has never signed a peace deal with the authorities in Khartoum going back to 2003 and the conflict over Darfur at that time.
SLA-AW has controlled what locals describe as “liberated areas” for more than two decades.
Now, surrounded by war on all sides, the region is increasingly isolated.
To the west and north, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias have blocked major roads. To the south, RSF positions are bombed almost every week by the Sudanese army – these attacks are also claiming civilian lives.
The RSF also control areas to the east.
The result is a closed-off environment where farmers and middlemen can no longer reach the national markets in the cities of el-Fasher 130km (82 miles) away, or Tine, on the Chadian border, 275km (170 miles) away.
There are other alternatives but none have the same national reach and all involve treacherous journeys.
Tawila, right on the edge of SLA-AW territory, has become the site of a makeshift market. It is on the road to el-Fasher, which is cut off by an RSF siege, and has become home to tens of thousands who have managed to flee that city.
Because of the difficulty of moving the produce any further, there is an oversupply in the market and as a result prices here have fallen.
There are some here who are looking to buy supplies to try and smuggle produce into el-Fasher – an extremely dangerous and life-threatening trade.
Getting goods this far has always been a challenge and food can sometimes rot on the way.
“To travel about 12km, it takes you a whole day of driving in the mountains and the mud,” says Yousif, a fruit vendor in Tawila. But now, he says, the insecurity makes things even worse.
In Central Darfur, a recent truce between leaders from the Fur ethnic group – dominant here – and Arab nomads has allowed limited trade in some areas.
Markets have reopened in the SLA-AW- controlled town of Nertiti, where Arab women sell sour milk and Fur farmers bring fruit and vegetables. But the arrangement is fragile.
“The market only opens once a week. Travel is still dangerous,” says a trader from Nertiti.
“Armed robberies still happen on the roads, even after the agreement.”
Fruit and crops can now also be sold in the market in RSF-controlled Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur state. But Arab militias allied to the RSF are frequently accused of harassing or attacking civilians in the area, though the groups deny any wrongdoing.
Each Thursday, which is market day, the number of checkpoints between Nertiti and Zalingei increases, sometimes reaching more than two dozen. But as more vehicles are on the road on market days, more people take the opportunity to travel.
The checkpoints, some manned by RSF fighters and others by Arab militia, are sometimes overseen by just one armed man in plainclothes, who demands a fee. Drivers will then often try to negotiate as passengers watch on silently.
There appears to be plenty of pasture for the cattle to graze on [Zeinab Mohammed Salih]
Returning back to the Jebel Marra region, SLA-AW checkpoints guard every road into the mountains, and armed men also demand money.
Bags are searched with contraband, even including skin-bleaching creams, widely used elsewhere in Sudan, are confiscated.
Once inside the SLA-AW controlled area, despite the relative peace, there are clear signs of the conflict elsewhere in the country.
Lorries filled with people fleeing the fighting, particularly around el-Fasher, can be seen on a daily basis.
Many of them find shelter in schools, clinics and other public spaces receiving little to no humanitarian assistance – aid agencies struggle to get through all the checkpoints.
In Golo, the de facto capital of the SLA-AW territory, a woman who had escaped from el-Fasher, described the dire conditions. She is now sheltering in a classroom with 25 other freshly arrived families.
“We have no income. No jobs to do, I used to work as a nurse and I can farm, but the land here belongs to people who work only for themselves. We don’t know what to do,” the woman said.
As she spoke, sick, elderly people lay on the ground and children were screaming from hunger. At least there will be some relief as the food that could not be taken out of Golo will be available.
This is the Jebel Marra region, a strange world surrounded by war. A world of green mountains and waterfalls. A world of bright, juicy fruit. A world of frightened evacuees.
One fruit trader said he had lost hope in both warring parties.
“We’re not part of the war – we just want to sell our oranges.”
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Warning: This piece contains details that some readers may find distressing
Touma hasn’t eaten in days. She sits silently, her eyes glassy as she stares aimlessly across the hospital ward.
In her arms, motionless and severely malnourished, lies her three-year-old daughter, Masajed.
Touma seems numb to the cries of the other young children around her. “I wish she would cry,” the 25-year-old mother tells us , looking at her daughter. “She hasn’t cried in days.”
Bashaer Hospital is one of the last functioning hospitals in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, devastated by the civil war which has been raging since April 2023. Many have travelled hours to get here for specialist care.
The malnutrition ward is filled with children who are too weak to fight disease, their mothers by their bedside, helpless.
Cries here can’t be soothed and each one cuts deep.
Touma and her family were forced to flee after fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reached their home about 200km (125 miles) south-west of Khartoum.
“[The RSF] took everything we owned – our money and our livestock – straight out of our hands,” she says. “We escaped with only our lives.”
With no money or food, Touma’s children began to suffer.
She looks stunned as she recounts their old life. “In the past, our house was full of goodness. We had livestock, milk and dates. But now we have nothing.”
Sudan is currently experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies.
According to the UN, three million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. The hospitals that are left are overwhelmed.
Bashaer Hospital offers care and basic treatment free of charge.
However, the lifesaving medicines needed by the children in the malnutrition ward must be paid for by their families.
Masajed is a twin, she and her sister Manahil were brought to the hospital together. But the family could only afford antibiotics for one child.
Touma had to make the impossible choice – she chose Manahil.
“I wish they could both recover and grow,” her grief-stricken voice cracks, “and that I could watch them walking and playing together as they did before.
“I just want them both to get better,” Touma says, cradling her dying daughter.
“I am alone. I have nothing. I have only God.”
Survival rates here are low. For the families on this ward the war has taken everything. They have been left with nothing and no means to buy the medicines that would save their children.
As we leave, the doctor says none of the children in this ward will survive.
Across the whole of Khartoum, children’s lives have been rewritten by the civil war.
Reminders of the conflict lie strewn across Khartoum [Liam Weir / BBC]
What began as an eruption of fighting between forces loyal to two generals – army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti – soon engulfed the city.
For two years – until last March when the army retook control – the city was gripped by war as rival fighters clashed.
Khartoum, once a hub of culture and commerce on the banks of the River Nile, became a battlefield. Tanks rolled into neighbourhoods. Fighter jets roared overhead. Civilians were trapped between crossfire, artillery bombardments and drone strikes.
It is in this devastated landscape, amid the silence of destruction, that the fragile voice of a child rises from the rubble.
Twelve-year-old Zaher wheels himself through the wreckage, past burnt-out cars, tanks, broken houses and forgotten bullets.
“I’m coming home,” he sings softly to himself as his wheelchair rolls over broken glass and shrapnel. “I can no longer see my home. Where’s my home?”
His voice, fragile but determined, contains both a lament for what has been lost and a quiet hope that one day, he may finally go home.
In a building now being used as a shelter, Zaher’s mother Habibah tells me about what life was like under RSF control.
“The situation was very difficult,” she says. “We couldn’t switch on our lights at night – it was as if we were thieves. We didn’t light fires. We didn’t move at all at night.”
She sits next to her son in a room lined with single beds.
“At any moment, whether you were sleeping or taking a shower, standing or sitting, you find them [the RSF] breathing down your neck.”
Many fled the capital, but Zaher and his mother had no means to get out. To survive, they sold lentils on the streets.
Then one morning, as they worked side by side, a drone struck.
“I looked at him and he was bleeding. There was blood everywhere,” Habibah says. “I was losing consciousness. I forced myself to stay awake because I knew if I passed out, I would lose him forever.”
Zaher’s legs were badly damaged. After hours of agony, they made it to hospital .
“I kept praying: ‘Please God, take my life instead of his legs,’” she cries.
But doctors could not save his legs. Both had to be amputated just below the knee.
“He would wake up and ask: ‘Why did you let them cut my legs?’” She looks down, her face filled with remorse, “I couldn’t answer.”
Both Habiba and her son weep, tormented by the memory of what happened to them. It is made worse by knowing that prosthetic limbs could give Zaher a chance at his old childhood, but Habiba cannot afford them.
For Zaher, the memory of what happened is too difficult to talk about.
He only shares one simple dream. “I wish I could have prosthetic legs so I can play football with my friends like I used to. That’s all.”
Children in Khartoum have been robbed not only of their childhoods but of safe places to play and be young.
Schools, football pitches and playgrounds are now shattered, with broken reminders of a life stolen by conflict.
“It was very nice here,” says 16-year-old Ahmed looking around a destroyed funfair and playground.
Printed on his grey, tattered T-shirt is a huge smiley face – the word “smile” emblazoned beneath it. But his reality could not be further from that sentiment.
“My brothers and I used to come here. We played all day and laughed so much. But when I came back after the war, I couldn’t believe it was the same place.”
Ahmed now lives and works here clearing the debris left by war, earning $50 (£37) for 30 days of continuous labour.
The money helps support him, his mother, grandmother and one of his brothers.
There were six other brothers but, like so many in Sudan who have missing family members, he has lost contact with them. He looks at his feet as he tells us he doesn’t know where they are or if any are still alive.
The war has ripped families like his apart.
Ahmed’s work reminds him of that nearly daily. “I have found the remains of 15 bodies so far,” he says.
Many of the remains found here have since been buried, but there are still some bones lying around.
Ahmed walks across the park and picks up a human jaw. “It’s terrifying. It makes me shake.”
He shows us another bone and holding it innocently beside his leg, he says: “This is a leg bone, like mine.”
Ahmed says he no longer dares to dream of a future.
“Ever since the war began, I have been certain that I was destined to die. So I stopped thinking about what I would do in the future.”
“I wish they would just fix me, so I could walk home and go to school””, Source: Zaher , Source description: , Image: A head and shoulders image of Zaher talking. One arm of this wheelchair can be seen on the right.
The destruction of schools has put the future of children in even more jeopardy.
Millions are no longer being educated.
But Zaher is one of the lucky few. He and his friends attend school in a makeshift classroom set up by volunteers in an abandoned home.
They call out answers loudly, write on the board, sing songs and there are even a few naughty kids messing around at the back of the class.
Hearing the sound of children learning and laughing, in a country where places to be a kid are so limited, is like nectar.
When we ask what childhood should be like, Zaher’s classmates answer with innocence still intact: “We should be playing, studying, reading.”
But the memory of war is never far away. “We shouldn’t be afraid of the bombs and the bullets,” interrupts Zaher. “We should be brave.”
Their teacher, Miss Amal, has taught for 45 years. She has never seen children so traumatised.
“They’ve been really affected by the war,” she says.
“Their mental health, their vocabulary. They are speaking the language of the militias. Violent curse words, even physical violence. They carry sticks and whips, wanting to hit someone. They have become so anxious.”
The damage extends beyond behaviour.
With most families stripped of income, food shortages are biting.
“Some students come from homes with no bread, no flour, no milk, no oil, nothing at all,” the teacher says.
And yet, amid despair, Sudan’s children cling to fleeting moments of joy.
On a scarred football pitch, Zaher drags himself across the dirt on his knees, determined to play the game he loves most. His friends cheer him on as he kicks the ball.
“My favourite thing to do is football,” he says, smiling for the first time.
When asked which team he supports, the answer is immediate: “Real Madrid.” His favourite player? “Vinícius.”
Playing on his knees is extremely painful and could lead to more infections. But he doesn’t care.
Football and his friendships have saved him. They have brought him joy and an escape from his reality. Yet, he dreams of prosthetic legs.
“I wish they would just fix me, so I could walk home and go to school,” Zaher says.
Additional reporting by Abdelrahman Abutaleb, Abdalrahman Altayeb and Liam Weir
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A Sudanese militia leader has been found guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity more than 20 years ago in the Darfur region.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, led the Janjaweed, a government-backed group that terrorised Darfur, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Kushayb is the first person to be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the atrocities in Darfur. He had argued it was a case of mistaken identity.
The conflict lasted from 2003 to 2020 and was one of the world’s gravest humanitarian disasters.
Five years after the end of that crisis, Darfur is a key battleground in another civil war, this time between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose origins lie in the Janjaweed.
During Kushayb’s trial, survivors described how their villages were burned down, men and boys slaughtered and women forced into sex slavery.
The militia leader was found guilty on 27 counts, centring on attacks committed between 2003 and 2004.
Judges at the ICC found the Janjaweed’s brutal tactics – including mass executions, sexual violence and torture – were often inflicted by Kushayb and his men.
Ahead of the verdict, a small group of Darfuris waited patiently to enter the court, in the Dutch city of The Hague.
They were in no doubt about the pivotal role Kushayb played in their suffering, with one man saying: “He was the one who gave the orders. He was the one who got the weapons.
“So if you ask me if he was important in Darfur, I will you tell you he was one of the most important ones.”
The Darfur war began after the Arab-dominated government at the time armed the Janjaweed, in an attempt to suppress an uprising by rebels from black African ethnic groups.
The Janjaweed systematically attacked non-Arab villagers accused of supporting the rebels, leading to accusations of genocide.
That same systematic violence is still happening in Darfur as part of the Sudan’s civil war.
Many of the Janjaweed fighters have morphed into the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group that is currently battling Sudan’s army.
The UK, US and rights groups have accused the RSF of carrying out ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in Darfur since the conflict began in 2023.
Kushayb will be sentenced at a later date.
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At least 91 people have been killed in Sudan’s besieged city of el-Fasher in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over 10 days last month, the United Nations says.
The attacks took place during intensified fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s army around the city, the largest urban centre in the Darfur region that remains under the control of the military and its allies, known as the Joint Forces.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, has been under siege for more than a year by the RSF, which launched a renewed offensive on the city in recent weeks, raising fears of potential atrocities.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday that the city’s Daraja Oula neighbourhood was repeatedly attacked and subjected to RSF artillery shelling, drone strikes and ground incursions from September 19 to 29.
He called for urgent action to prevent “large-scale, ethnically driven attacks and atrocities in el-Fasher.”
He said “atrocities are not inevitable”, adding that “they can be averted if all actors take concrete action to uphold international law, demand respect for civilian life and property, and prevent the continued commission of atrocity crimes”.
Since the army recaptured Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in March, the focus of the fighting has shifted to el-Fasher.
In recent weeks, the RSF has tightened its nearly 500-day siege of the city, one of the longest in modern urban warfare, and has stepped up the tempo and intensity of its attacks, including the frequent use of drones, according to the Sudanese army and residents of the city.
“What little food remains is beyond the reach of most. Two kilos [4.4lb] of millet sell for $100, a kilo of sugar or flour for $80 while the average monthly salary, when salaries were still paid, was $70,” Sarra Majdoub, a former UN expert on the country wrote in a recent opinion article for The Guardian.
At least six people were killed and 10 were wounded in artillery and drone attacks on the city on Wednesday, a medical worker in el-Fasher told the AFP news agency.
Last month, at least 78 people were killed in a drone attack on al-Safiyah Mosque during dawn prayers that was blamed on the RSF.
Satellite images and analysis conducted by the Yale Humanitarian Lab, which has been monitoring the Sudan war, indicated that the munition used was likely an RSF suicide drone because there was “no visible ground scarring or crater inside the mosque, indicating that the munition detonated on impact with the mosque roof”.
Civilians inside the city are mostly concentrated in its north near the Sudanese army’s main position but haven’t been able to flee as the RSF surrounds the city.
Last week, the army said it had managed to carry out an airdrop of supplies to its soldiers in the city, a sign of the measures required to work around siege.
“The cruelty of the situation is compounded by continued arbitrary RSF restrictions on bringing food and essential supplies into the city and credible reports of civilians tortured and killed by RSF fighters for doing so,” Turk said.
Civilians who have tried to flee often have to make life-threatening journeys to nearby camps for displaced people because the RSF has almost completely surrounded the city, extending a 68km-long (42-mile-long) berm it has dug at its perimeter.
Human rights organisations have reported violations and killings by the RSF of people who have tried to leave el-Fasher.
Mukesh Kapila, professor of global health and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester, told Al Jazeera that the situation in the city was “extremely dire” and residents trapped there were facing “an extremely difficult calculation”.
“The routes out of el-Fasher are very few, and the situation in the surrounding refugee camps, where famine has been declared in some, is not necessarily much better,” he said.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has expressed dismay at “the rapidly deteriorating situation” in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State.
Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday that civilians continue to bear the brunt of the devastating conflict raging in the country.
The statement came a day after at least 70 people were killed when a mosque was attacked in the besieged city, the last remaining capital controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The army said the attack had been carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the military for power of the country since April 2023.
“With El Fasher having been under a tightening siege by the Rapid Support Forces for more than 500 days, attacks affecting civilians have further intensified in recent weeks, with the majority of the residents of the Abu Shouk displacement camp reportedly having been forced to flee due to relentless shelling and raids,” Dujarric said.
“The fighting must stop now.”
In a special report released on Thursday, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) said that El Fasher appears to be falling to the RSF and that the group likely controls the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people.
It said that it made its assessment based on the fact that RSF is using advanced weaponry and that the military does not have sufficient forces and supplies to defend the city.
“The results of RSF’s capture and control of Abu Shouk IDP Camp and encirclement of El Fasher have already proven catastrophic for civilians,” the report read.
A landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, according to the rebel group The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.
Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and “levelled” much of the village of Tarasin, the group said in a statement.
The movement has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other regional and international organisations.
Many residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.
Civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.
Estimates for death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.
Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.
Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.
