As the flames of war continue to engulf Sudan, the United Nations Security Council was urged Monday to prevent the horrors of this conflict from recurring and to stop those enabling the violence from spreading instability further across the region. Escalating violence in Sudan is placing civilians at extreme risk and triggering new waves of displacement, particularly in the Kordofan region.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported Monday that displacement has increased sharply in South Kordofan State in recent days. Civilians are seeking refuge in the town of Kadugli and surrounding areas, as well as in North Kordofan State. Displacement into White Nile State is also rising, with more than 15,000 people arriving from the Kordofan region since late October.
As the year comes to a close, the UN continues to urge all warring parties to immediately stop attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure, to uphold international humanitarian law, and to ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access so that the coming year is not marked by the same levels of misery.
“Each passing day brings staggering levels of violence and destruction,” said Khaled Khiari, the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and the Department of Peace Operations, in his briefing to the Security Council on Monday.
He reported that the recent conflict has centered on the Kordofan region and that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the town of Babanusa on December 1 and the Heglig oil field on December 8.
The towns of Kadugli and Dilling, both in South Kordofan, are now under siege. He also mentioned the reported movement of armed groups across the border between Sudan and South Sudan, which could have destabilizing effects on both countries.
Khiari spotlighted a particularly alarming feature of the conflict: the growing use of indiscriminate drone strikes by both parties. Detailing the locations of attacks, he mentioned a kindergarten and a hospital that were hit on December 4, a UN logistics base that was struck in Kadugli, and six peacekeepers who were killed while serving with the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).
He stated that the continued supply of weapons is a key driver of the conflict and emphasized that "Sudan is saturated with arms," adding that the parties are unwilling to compromise or de-escalate.
“While they were able to stop fighting to preserve oil revenues, they have so far failed to do the same to protect their population,” he said.
To stop the situation from getting worse, he said that they need to act quickly and work together. He also told the Council to send one clear and united message: "Those who enable this war will be held accountable."
He also urged the Council to use “all the tools at its disposal” to demand peace and protect civilians.
Also briefing the UN body, Edem Wosornu, OCHA's Director of the Crisis Response Division, stressed that "the brutality of this conflict appears to have no bounds" while detailing the plight of civilians.
The Kordofan states have become a new epicenter of violence and suffering. She reported that "staggering" levels of humanitarian need persist across the Darfur region as well. Access to the town of El Fasher remains unsafe amid ongoing allegations of severe human rights violations, including mass killings and sexual violence, during and following the RSF’s takeover of the city.
“Efforts to safely access El Fasher continue, with ongoing discussions on the deployment of a security assessment team,” Wosornu said.
Citing UN reports on the assault of the Zamzam refugee camp, she described the deliberate killing of civilians and "gruesome sexual violence," as well as the prolonged blocking of essential supplies.
This violence is part of a broader pattern of international crimes that continues to devastate Sudan’s health system.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), attacks on healthcare facilities have reached alarming levels. In 2025 alone, 65 such attacks in Sudan caused more than 1,600 deaths, accounting for over 80 percent of all global deaths from attacks on healthcare in complex emergencies this year.
"Humanitarian responders in Tawila and Ad Dabbah and other areas are struggling to fully cover the needs of new arrivals from El Fasher, with resources and capacities severely stretched, despite new injections of funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund and the Sudan Humanitarian Fund," Wosornu said.
Humanitarian resources and capacities across Sudan are severely stretched, while the response reached some 16.8 million people since January.
“Our system is under unprecedented strain and, increasingly, under direct attack,” the OCHA official said. “But it continues to deliver. “
She urged the Council to send a “strong, unequivocal” message that atrocities “will not be tolerated” and stressed that the organ cannot allow the horrors that unfolded in El Fasher to repeat.
El Fasher, a city of roughly one million people a year ago, now has only 70,000 to 100,000 people remaining, and thousands, if not tens of thousands, have been killed.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 107,000 people were displaced from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, and surrounding villages between late October, when the RSF took control of the city, and early December. Many had already been displaced multiple times after fleeing camps for displaced people such as Zamzam and Abu Shouk.
Now, following their capture of El Fasher, the Rapid Support Forces have set their sights on neighboring Kordofan states. If left unchecked, an all-out battle for control of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, will ensue.
“In North Kordofan State, the situation has been equally alarming, with continuing attacks in and around the capital, El Obeid, and reports of forced recruitment and of civilians being prevented from leaving the area as fighting closes in,” Wosornu said.
Cameron Hudson, an independent analyst and consultant on African security, governance, and geopolitics, warned the Security Council that the fight for control of El Obeid will be the most destructive battle yet.
Meanwhile, sieges around the towns of Kadugli, where famine has been declared, and Dilling, where famine is believed to be ongoing, have tightened, with deadly shelling and drone strikes continuing.
Hudson called on the international community to "cease simply admiring the problem and take measurable actions."
He said that over the last year, this conflict has evolved from a conventional war involving outdated heavy equipment and light arms to a modern conflict involving the latest advanced weaponry. Weapons from as many as a dozen countries have been found in use by both sides.
“Many of those countries providing weapons actively decry the civilian casualties inflicted by the same arms they provide,” Hudson said, while others sit on the Security Council.
He added that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has established an extensive military air bridge, transporting weapons to the Rapid Support Forces through client regimes in Chad, Libya, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Somalia's Puntland region.
Against this backdrop, Hudson underscored the need to expand the arms embargo on Sudan to cover the entire country.
“This is not simply a civil war between warring generals seeking power and personal aggrandizement; it is a fully internationalized conflict with arms, financial and political networks extending across continents,” he said.
“If we think these same networks won’t support the region’s next war in Chad or South Sudan or Ethiopia, we are mistaken,” Hudson added.
Sudan, a nation rich in gold and oil, which are the main drivers of the war and external interference, has become the site of the world's largest humanitarian, hunger, and displacement crises. Out of a population of 47 million, approximately 15 million people have been displaced, including over 10 million internally displaced people.
Due to war, acute food insecurity and malnutrition, disease outbreaks, and worsening climate shocks, more than 33 million people in Sudan will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, over 19 million people are facing critical levels of food insecurity, and approximately 375,000 are experiencing catastrophic conditions of hunger.