United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, citing reports of intensified fighting in the Darfur and Kordofan regions. The appeal follows a week in which a Sudanese peace initiative presented at the U.N. was rejected by opposing forces.
The conflict, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has resulted in a large-scale humanitarian crisis. According to U.N. figures, the fighting has internally displaced 9.6 million people, caused 4.3 million to flee to neighboring countries, and left 30.4 million in need of humanitarian assistance. The U.N. has described the situation as the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Guterres’s call for a truce came after Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris presented a peace plan to the U.N. Security Council on Monday. The proposal included a U.N.-monitored ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of the RSF from the territories it controls, which is estimated to be around 40 percent of the country.
An adviser to RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo dismissed the plan, describing it to media outlets as “closer to fantasy than to politics.” Upon his return to Port Sudan on Friday, Idris also stated that his government would reject the deployment of any international peacekeeping forces.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting, Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari reported that fighting had intensified with the onset of the dry season. “Each passing day brings staggering levels of violence and destruction,” Khiari stated. “Civilians are enduring immense, unimaginable suffering, with no end in sight.”
Recent military developments include the RSF’s capture of the Heglig oilfield in the Kordofan region on Dec. 8. The action prompted South Sudan to deploy forces to the area to protect oil infrastructure. Khiari told the council this development reflects “the increasingly complex nature of the conflict and its expanding regional dimensions.”
The RSF also began an offensive in North Darfur on Dec. 24, targeting towns in the Dar Zaghawa region near the border with Chad.
On Friday, a drone attack killed two Chadian soldiers at a military base in the border town of Tine, according to a Chadian military intelligence officer who spoke to the Reuters news agency. The official stated the drone originated from Sudan. In response, Chad’s government placed its air force on high alert and issued a statement that it would “exercise our right to retaliate” if the strike was determined to be a deliberate act.
Also on Friday, the U.N. announced it had completed its first humanitarian assessment mission in el-Fasher, a city in North Darfur. U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said the mission followed “months of intense fighting, siege, and widespread violations against civilians and humanitarian workers.”
Earlier in December, a report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab documented systematic killings by the RSF and allied militias in el-Fasher, citing satellite imagery showing evidence of burned structures and mass graves.
