Sudan Update

June 27th – July 9th, 2026

In the Face of Genocide, We Must Not Let Our Leaders Look the Other Way!

The UN Confirms RSF Genocide in El Fasher, Warned that El Obeid Will Face the Same Fate

 
Washington, DC- This past week, the United Nations welcomed two critical milestones: a formal UN determination that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed genocide in El Fasher, and an unprecedented UN Human Rights Council resolution ordering an urgent investigation into the worsening catastrophe in El Obeid. While the UN has remained largely idle in deploying resources for the victims of Sudan, these resolutions make us – and the greater humanitarian sector – hopeful that Sudan will become a prominent item on the international agenda. As of today, not a single international protection force has been deployed to Sudan, and the RSF’s siege of El Obeid will continue if this remains unchanged. As the international community is aware, civilians are still dying in drone strikes, women are still being abducted and forced into sexual slavery, and Sudan remains the world’s greatest displacement crisis. Distinguished Representatives of the UN are now urgently warning that civilians in El Obeid will be subjected to the RSF’s genocidal rampage if effective action is not taken. Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) is using its platform and influence to call on the United Nations and greater international community to act with preemption while we still have the chance to do so.

“Do Not Let El Obeid Become the Next Crime Scene”

The civilians of El Obeid – the capital of North Kordofan and home to more than half a million people, including over 83,000 internally displaced persons – remain subject to unceasing attacks on civilian infrastructure, including critical supplies such as food, water, transportation, and energy sources. In a span of three weeks, at least 45 individuals were killed in 15 separate drone attacks on El Obeid and its surrounding areas. In late June, there was a period of ten consecutive days in which the RSF launched attacks on civilian infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of another 50 individuals in El Obeid and North Kordofan. RSF forces have now seized control of all but one route surrounding the city. Independent reports have confirmed the targeted destruction of multiple sites of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, power stations, water infrastructure, and fuel depots. Given the systematic destruction of food and water sources, the price of food has increased by 300% and the price of water has doubled in El Obeid.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of an impending humanitarian “catastrophe” as El Obeid becomes the expected site of the next major ground offensive: “El Obeid must not become the next crime scene.” If it is evidence that is required for action, we must look at the similarities between the siege of El Fasher and unfolding atrocities in El Obeid. The RSF is acting quickly and systematically, using the same tactics weaponized against the civilians of El Fasher. We can expect the same, if not a worse, outcome for the civilians of El Obeid.

Amnesty International: “A Stain on the Conscience of Humanity” & RSF Crimes Against Humanity in El Fasher

On the first of this month, Amnesty International released a landmark 247-interview investigation titled “City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur.” Based on eight months of field research, including 39 interviews with children and the analysis of 89 open-source videos and satellite imagery, Amnesty concluded that the RSF committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its siege and capture of El Fasher. The crimes documented include murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination, and persecution.

Amnesty directly named three RSF commanders it holds responsible: Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed, Abbas Khater Bakhit, and Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris. The organization stated that the acts documented “may be relevant to the crime of genocide” – a finding confirmed by the UN Fact-Finding Mission eight days later. Amnesty described the RSF’s campaign as “a stain on the conscience of humanity” and called explicitly for international accountability. Children were deliberately targeted, being intentionally killed, injured, raped, abducted, and forcibly recruited.

The UN Human Rights Council Statements on Atrocities in Sudan

On July 3rd, the UN Human Rights Council convened a landmark special session on El Obeid in response to urgent calls from several humanitarian organizations which have warned of imminent humanitarian and war crimes. On July 6th, the Council adopted a resolution ordering an urgent inquiry into reported human rights violations, sexual abuses, and war crimes in regions around El Obeid. The resolution was co-sponsored by 28 nations and adopted by a majority, lead by the United Kingdom. The resolution condemns the escalation of violence in North Kordofan, explicitly mentioning the widespread epidemic of conflict related sexual violence and the various violations of humanitarian law. The resolution tasks the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan with conducting the investigation.

In response, Sudan’s government objected to the resolution’s implementation stating it equates the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with the RSF. DWAG acknowledges the Council’s action and the urgency it signals, but emphasizes this investigatory measure is only a preliminary step toward effective action. The purpose of a fact-finding mission is to prove violations of humanitarian and wartime law, it does not immediately implement the safeguarding of victims. Though we are grateful the UN is finally recognizing the need to extend resources in Sudan, civilians need tangible protection today. The Council has an obligation to act with more than words.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission Confirms RSF Committed Genocide in El Fasher

On July 9th, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released significant findings regarding the RSFs conduct in North Darfur. It concluded that the RSF’s systematic campaign of mass killings, gang rapes, deliberate starvation, and ethnic targeting – during and after the siege of North Darfur and fall of El Fasher – constitutes genocide. The Mission found that the RSF and its allied forces committed “door-to-door executions”, identity-based targeting, aerial drone bombardments, and indiscriminate shootings. More than 6,000 people were killed in just three days when RSF forces took control of El Fasher in October 2025, following an eighteen-month siege. The crimes documented include murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination, and persecution.

Famine Expands as Two More Communities Enter IPC Phase Five

Sudan’s humanitarian catastrophe has deepened further. Recently, two regions in North Darfur were classified within the most extreme category of famine and catastrophe – according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which operates as the international standard for assessing food insecurity. The phase five metric established that at least 20% of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition, and at least two individuals per 10,000 people die per day from malnutrition.

Nearly 19.5 million people face acute food insecurity in Sudan. More than 825,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition this year. In regions of El Fasher, Global Acute Malnutrition rates among children have been documented at 80%. In Kadugli, rates have reached 29 percent. The international community has funded just 5.5 percent of Sudan’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which requires $2.9 billion. The World Food Programme urgently requires $579 million to maintain operations through October 2026. The United States and the greater international community must reform foreign aid budgets to honor obligations made through the establishment of programs such as the United Nations WFP. Specifically, the United States’ failure to lead the humanitarian sector toward action as the leader of the humanitarian sector is a concerning reminder that the world is not paying enough attention to the people of Sudan.

We Call On the International Community to Act Now

We call on the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, the United States, the European Union, IGAD, and the greater international community to support our calls to action:

• Enforce an Immediate and Sustained Ceasefire with Civilian Protection Guarantees, including an immediate halt to all RSF aerial bombardment, drone strikes, and siege tactics, and mandate the withdrawal of RSF forces from civilian zones in El Obeid, El Fasher, and throughout Darfur and Kordofan.
• Deploy International Protection Forces under Chapter VII mandates to safeguard civilians, displacement camps, hospitals, and humanitarian aid workers across Sudan, especially for the sake of women and children who are most vulnerable to humanitarian abuses and sexual violence.
• Open Safe Humanitarian Corridors by Land and Air with guaranteed and unobstructed access for food, medical aid, fuel, and emergency response teams, including cross-border corridors through Chad, free from RSF interference, attack, or blockade.
• Expand the Arms Embargo to All of Sudan by cutting the weapons pipeline feeding genocide, including enforcement against international suppliers and intermediaries known to be arming the RSF.
• Support and fully resource the UN Fact-Finding Mission and the ICC to document atrocities, secure evidence, and prosecute crimes of genocide, sexual violence, ethnic targeting, and mass starvation as weapons of war – including pursuing the three RSF commanders named by Amnesty International.
• Impose targeted sanctions, travel bans, and asset freezes on all RSF leadership and on states and private entities supplying arms or financing the RSF’s genocidal campaign.
• Designate the RSF as a global terrorist organization and build a coordinated international response to delegitimize, isolate, and dismantle its command structure.
• Fully fund Sudan’s 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan — currently at just 20 percent — as a matter of urgent legal and moral obligation to the children and civilians dying of imposed starvation.
• Listen to and integrate the voices of survivors, women, and affected communities in all decision-making related to resolving this crisis and preventing future atrocities.

Stand With Sudan – Join One Million Voices

The people of Darfur and Sudan deserve the full protection of international law immediately. The United Nations has now confirmed genocide. Only collective action, accountability, and the deployment of protection forces can stop what is happening.

As DWAG continues its mission to center survivors, amplify women’s leadership, and build a future free from genocide, we ask the global community to stand with us by joining our One Million Voices for Sudan Campaign. Your voice can compel leaders, media, and institutions to speak out and enforce their international obligations.

If you are able, please support DWAG’s humanitarian and justice efforts through our ongoing fundraiser. Your contribution enables survivor-centered documentation, emergency advocacy, and global accountability efforts.

Together, we defend human dignity, demand protection, and affirm that the lives of Sudanese women and children are not expendable.

With gratitude,

Niemat Ahmadi

Founder and President, Darfur Women Action Group

For inquiries, please contact: policy@darfurwomenaction.org

For more resources and to find ways in which you can help, go to: www.darfurwomenaction.org

About DWAG

Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) is a women-led anti-atrocities nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) status, founded in 2009 by a Darfur genocide survivor to empower and amplify voices of women and the conflict-affected and historically excluded communities in Sudan and the United States of America (USA) to enable them to champion their causes and work collectively to foster sustainable social change.