WASHINGTON, DC — THE United Nations is again sounding the alarm over escalating violence in parts of Sudan, warning that the country’s humanitarian crisis is worsening with no clear end in sight.
The Quintet group — comprising the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the League of Arab States, the European Union and the UN — has expressed grave concern over the continued escalation of the conflict and is calling for an immediate halt to further military action.
Sudan has endured years of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), rival factions locked in a struggle for power. The two groups overthrew the government in 2021 but have since failed to establish a workable partnership to govern the country. The conflict has triggered what officials describe as the largest displacement crisis in the world.
Speaking during a media briefing yesterday (Feb.11), UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stressed the urgent need for coordinated international action to “de-escalate the conflict and halt the flow of weapons and fighters that are sustaining the violence.”
There are also renewed calls for a humanitarian truce in line with international law and Security Council Resolution 2736.
Those appeals come as conditions on the ground continue to deteriorate. Dujarric described the situation as “horrific,” noting a surge in attacks on civilian and critical sites.
“Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that a drone strike at dawn today hit a mosque in the city of Al-Rahad in North Kordofan State, reportedly killing two children and injuring 13 others, all of them were students in the school at the mosque. This information is relayed to us by the medical association, the Sudan Doctors Network,” he told reporters during a Wednesday press conference.
That attack followed a drone strike on a primary school late Tuesday night in Dilling, South Kordofan, where injuries were also reported.
Strikes have also reportedly hit a warehouse operated by the World Food Programme in Kadugli. Additional attacks were recorded across South Kordofan, North Kordofan and West Kordofan — areas close to key supply routes linking El Obeid to Dilling and Kadugli — raising fears of further disruption to already fragile humanitarian operations.
