The United Nations issued its sharpest warning yet over Sudan on Thursday, saying vicious new fighting in the Kordofan region is reviving the same horrors witnessed in Darfur months ago and pushing millions closer to famine and collapse.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he fears “a new wave of atrocities” as battles between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) surge across North, South and West Kordofan.
This oil-rich corridor controls critical supply routes and has become the conflict’s new frontline after the RSF overran el-Fasher in Darfur.
Sudan’s war, now in its second year, has killed at least 40,000 people – likely far more, rights groups say – and displaced more than 14 million, the worst humanitarian crisis on record.
Türk warned that Kordofan is sliding into the same nightmare that engulfed Darfur, as mass killings, sexual violence and sweeping population displacement rise in staggering numbers.
The RSF’s capture of el-Fasher, the Sudanese army’s last major foothold in Darfur, unleashed executions, rapes and house-to-house assaults that sent more than 100,000 fleeing.
Many remain missing along desert escape routes choked off by checkpoints and militias. “It is truly shocking to see history repeating itself in Kordofan so soon after the horrific events in el-Fasher,” Türk said. “We must not allow Kordofan to become another el-Fasher.”
He detailed entire communities wiped out in recent weeks.
In Bara, North Kordofan, at least 269 people were killed by aerial strikes, artillery fire and summary executions since late October – a figure likely far higher due to sweeping communication blackouts.
In el-Obeid, an RSF drone strike on Nov. 3 killed 45 people, mostly women gathered in a tent. Days later, Sudanese military airstrikes in Kauda, South Kordofan, killed at least 48 civilians.
Türk called urgently for telecoms to be restored to allow lifesaving aid and civilian evacuations.
The epicenter now is Babanusa in West Kordofan, where the RSF claims to have captured the Sudanese army’s 22nd Division headquarters.
The military has offered no comment, and the Associated Press (AP) could not verify RSF videos released this week.
Aid workers say thousands of women and children who had sheltered inside the army’s compound for months are now trapped, pleading to be moved to safety “without harm, detention or retaliation,” according to the Sudan Doctors Network.
South Kordofan faces a parallel catastrophe. Kadugli and Dilling, already gripped by famine, have been under siege by the RSF and allied groups for weeks, leaving civilians without food, medicine or safe passage.
The U.N. migration agency says more than 44,000 people have fled Kordofan since fighting intensified, a number that keeps growing as siege zones widen.
On Thursday, local medics reported nine civilians – including four children and two women – were killed when RSF and allied SPLM-N fighters launched suicide drones at a kindergarten and civilian facilities in Kalogi, South Kordofan.
The Sudan Doctors Network condemned the attack as “a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” demanding U.N. intervention to stop the targeting of civilians.
Humanitarian officials in New York echoed those fears.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said conditions in Kordofan are now “catastrophic,” with famine confirmed in Kadugli and “sustained attacks” reported in Babanusa. Entire towns remain sealed off, leaving civilians in “extreme hardship, severe movement restrictions, and little or no access to basic services.”
Aid workers face extraordinary risks while trying to reach 1.1 million people across the three Kordofan states.
Convoys have been repeatedly looted or attacked, and farmers cannot reach their fields, deepening the threat that famine could spread throughout the region.
Meanwhile in North Darfur, Save the Children said more than 43,000 people displaced from el-Fasher since October have settled in nearby Korma town and Silk camp, overwhelming already fragile host communities.
The RSF now controls all five states of Darfur, except pockets in North Darfur, while the Sudanese army holds much of the remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.
The war that began in April 2023 shows no sign of slowing – only widening – even as diplomats warn that Sudan’s collapse could destabilize an entire region.
Türk urged nations with influence to act swiftly: “Stop the fighting. Stop the weapons. And stop another region of Sudan from being carved apart by atrocities.”
