The United Nations has issued a dire warning about the ongoing conflict in Sudan, warning that the risk of genocide remains “very high” amid reports of targeted ethnic violence by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Virginia Gamba, the UN’s special adviser for the prevention of genocide, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that both sides in Sudan’s war were committing serious human rights violations. However, she expressed particular concern about ongoing attacks on ethnic communities in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
Gamba said RSF fighters and allied Arab militias were carrying out ethnically motivated attacks, particularly against the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur communities.
Sudan has been embroiled in a brutal civil war since April 2023, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been battling RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo for control of the country. The conflict has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced nearly 13 million people, including four million who have fled across borders.
The UN has described the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, saying civilians are bearing the brunt of the relentless violence, mass displacement and widespread human rights violations.