HRW Report: Sudan

[John Ashworth]

Human Rights Watch Report: Sudan Events of 2025

Conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support
Forces (RSF) continued for a third year, with all warring parties
committing war crimes and other violations of international
humanitarian law.

The warring parties’ actions made Sudan the worst global humanitarian
crisis. The United Nations’ World Food Programme reported that 24.6
million people suffer from acute hunger and 2 million face famine or
risk of famine. Over 11.8 million were displaced by the conflict as of
September, including 7.4 million internally displaced and 4.2 million
in neighboring countries.

While the SAF retook the capital, Khartoum, and other cities and
villages including in central Sudan, by the end of October El Fasher,
North Darfur’s capital, fell to the RSF and immediately there were
reports and images of RSF extrajudicial killings and other serious
violations against people fleeing. The SAF carried out indiscriminate
airstrikes in South Darfur as well other parts of the country.

Both parties continue to wilfully obstruct aid despite the
population’s desperate needs, and to detain and harass humanitarian
workers and local volunteers.

In July, the RSF and their allies announced the creation of a parallel
government, based in Darfur.

The United States rolled out designated sanctions against individuals
and entities in relation to the conflict. In July, the European Union
(EU) adopted more targeted sanctions for serious human rights
violations, including against the Sudan Shield Forces leader Abu Aqla
Keikel. In Conclusions adopted by EU foreign ministers, the EU stated
its grave concerns over violations across Sudan, called for
accountability and committed to advance concrete measures for the
protection of civilians. The International Criminal Court (ICC)
investigations in Darfur continued. In September, the UN Security
Council renewed the Sudan sanctions regime for another year. They did
not expand it to cover the whole of Sudan nor designate new
individuals under the existing regime. The mandate of the UN
Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) was extended by
the UN Human Rights Council in October.

Conflict and Abuses in Khartoum

In March, as the SAF regained control of Khartoum, they uncovered
evidence of serious violations by the RSF, notably in Omdurman. The
SAF committed retaliatory attacks against local volunteers accused of
collaborating with the RSF.

Civilians faced ongoing indiscriminate shelling and air attacks. Local
volunteers said in January that the SAF carried out indiscriminate
airstrikes in southern Khartoum, including on a market, killing, and
injuring dozens of civilians.

In February, local medical authorities and activists said the RSF
shelling resulted in 54 people being killed and over 100 injured at a
market in Omdurman. In March, media reported that around 500 people
may have been buried in mass graves in northern Khartoum near an RSF
base, where detainees reported torture and starvation. The RSF drone
strikes reportedly continued to target installations in Khartoum vital
for civilians, even if also used by the military, including on
September 9 when media reported RSF attacks hit power stations and an
oil refinery.

In March, the UN Human Rights Office noted credible reports that the
RSF and allied forces looted houses in eastern Khartoum, carrying out
summary killings, arbitrary detentions, and looting. They said that
SAF-allied fighters were reported to have carried out similar abuses.

Conflict and Abuses in Darfur

On October 26, the RSF captured El Fasher, the culmination of a siege
on the city since May 2024, and relentless attacks by the armed group
that triggered famine in displacement camps in and around the city.
The RSF carried out mass killings of people fleeing, as well as sexual
violence.

Prior to the fall of El Fasher, both parties carried out attacks
impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including the city’s
few remaining health facilities. The UN FFM reported that the RSF
damaged water facilities and supply lines in February and in
mid-April, RSF large-scale attacks on Zamzam killed between 300 and
1,500 and injured over 157, the majority women and children.

The SAF shelled and bombed residential areas, including bombing a
market north of El Fasher on March 24 and in early February also
killed scores of civilians in attacks on residential and commercial
neighbourhoods in Nyala, South Darfur, using unguided air-dropped
bombs.

Conflict and Abuses in Other Locations

On January 10, the Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group currently
allied with the SAF, and led by Abu Aqla Keikel, targeted civilians in
Tayba village, killing at least 26 civilians. The fighters looted
property, burned homes, and terrorized residents, forcing many to
flee. The attack took place in the context of a SAF offensive to
retake Gezira state.

In West Kordofan, the SAF bombed a mosque on June 21, killing 41 and
wounding dozens. The UN reported that around 300 people were killed in
RSF-led attacks in July on a Barra locality in North Kordofan. The SAF
also carried out airstrikes in July in West Kordofan that reportedly
left at least 23 civilians killed.

Willful Obstruction of Humanitarian Assistance, Attacks on Aid

The warring parties continue to wilfully obstruct aid movement, while
also attacking humanitarian workers and local volunteers, violating
international humanitarian law. The UN FFM concluded that the RSF and
their allied forces used starvation as a method of warfare, a war
crime.

Cuts to international aid by the US and others, combined with attacks
by the warring parties, have led to the closure of many emergency food
kitchens, a vital source of food.

At a conference in London in April, international actors pledged over
€500 million in aid.

Even to the extent aid remained available, fighting and attacks on
humanitarian aid agencies resulted in suspension of services in some
parts. In February, WFP temporarily paused food distribution to Zamzam
camp in North Darfur.

In June, a WFP convoy was attacked in North Darfur killing five staff
members. A drone strike also hit another UN convoy in the same region
in August.

An armed attack in August forced Doctors without Borders (MSF), a
medical charity, to suspend their operations in Zalingei hospital,
central Darfur in the midst of a Cholera outbreak.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that
in May only 110 visas for the UN and international NGOs were approved
out of the 355 pending requests, and the backlog was increasing.

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

Sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated primarily against women
and girls by combatants on both sides of the conflict. Evidence of
rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery indicate that these acts are
numerous and often widespread. In May, UN experts said at least 330
cases of conflict-related sexual violence have been documented. But
with severe restrictions on access to services, attacks on medical
personnel, survivors facing deep stigma, and ongoing restrictions on
independent monitoring, the documented cases are likely a small
proportion of the actual number.

As of June, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said recent cuts to aid
funding have forced the agency to withdraw from more than half of the
93 health facilities it was supporting.

Detention, Torture, and ill-Treatment

Both parties have unlawfully detained, tortured, and executed
civilians. The UN FFM said RSF fighters beat and shot detainees in
April in Omdurman. The mission also said both parties held detainees
in inhumane conditions. The SAF unlawfully detained people accused of
collaborating with the RSF, often along ethnic lines.

In April, activists raised concern over the lack of due process for
over 25 women charged by SAF authorities with collaborating with the
RSF, who face possible death sentences. A local rights group said in
September that the SAF and their allies were detaining over 3,000
people in Gezira state, most of them political activists.

Accountability

Impunity remains a key factor fuelling the violence and emboldening
perpetrators of grave crimes, as often both parties deny allegations
or fail to take credible steps to investigate. All parties to the
conflict continued their refusal to cooperate with the UN FFM and the
AU Joint Fact-Finding Mission, by blocking access to territories under
their control, dismissing their findings and concerns, and not
responding to any of their communications or requests.

On October 6, ICC judges convicted former Janjaweed militia leader,
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (Ali Kosheib), of charges of war crimes
and crimes against humanity in Darfur in 2003-04 and 2013, the first
trial arising out of the court’s Darfur investigation. However, the
ICC’s mandate remains limited to Darfur, leaving no independent
judicial mechanisms to investigate and prosecute individuals
responsible for grave crimes committed across Sudan.

The UN Human Rights Council decided to extend the mandate of the UN
FFM, to ensure robust continued investigations into ongoing grave
abuses, and to support efforts to hold perpetrators of international
crimes to account.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Same sex sexuality and gender non-conforming expression are
criminalized in Sudan under sections 148 and 151 of the penal code.
The law penalizes those convicted of “sodomy” and “indecent acts” with
one year to life imprisonment.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/sudan

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John Ashworth

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