The United Kingdom urged the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to pause fighting for aid, pursue a lasting ceasefire and support civilian-led talks as the anniversary of El Fasher’s capture nears.
Ambassador Kate Foster, the UK’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, made the appeal at a Security Council meeting in New York on Oct. 16. She urged the parties to honor the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, signed May 11, 2023, to guide civilian protection and safe humanitarian deliveries.
Foster backed strengthening the Security Council’s Sudan sanctions regime and called for swift transmission of the 1591 Panel of Experts’ final report to the Council and its publication. She said networks outside Sudan were helping procure, finance, transfer and sustain military drone capabilities, and urged states to stop fueling the conflict. The parties should “choose diplomacy over continued war,” she said.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said its investigators spoke with more than 140 victims and witnesses in late 2025. The office documented more than 6,000 killings during the RSF operation’s opening three days, including at least 4,400 deaths in El Fasher and more than 1,600 along routes used to flee. It also described sexual violence and torture, drawing parallels with RSF offensives at Zamzam in April 2025 and El Geneina and Ardamata in 2023.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned Oct. 12 that famine risk was growing in parts of Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, citing conflict, displacement, severe drought and inadequate humanitarian funding. Its May 2026 analysis estimated nearly 19.5 million people faced acute food insecurity from February through May and identified 14 areas at risk under a reasonable worst-case scenario. That figure describes a scenario-based risk, not a declaration of famine in all 14 areas.
The UK said it expected further progress at Geneva consultations the following week.
