Foreign ministers warn of ‘apocalyptic’ crisis in Sudan as El-Fasher falls. UK announces further £5 million of humanitarian support in response to the violence
Foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan and the United Kingdom issued a joint appeal on Saturday for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, warning that the conflict has reached catastrophic proportions after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the last major city in Darfur’s El-Fasher. Their comments followed alarming reports of mass killings, sexual violence and the collapse of humanitarian conditions in the war-torn region.
Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the international response to the conflict in Sudan. She said, “Just as a combination of leadership and international cooperation has made progress in Gaza, it is currently badly failing to deal with the humanitarian crisis and the devastating conflict in Sudan, because the reports from Darfur in recent days have truly horrifying atrocities.”
Cooper warned of “mass executions, starvation and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, with women and children bearing the brunt of the largest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century. For too long, this terrible conflict has been neglected, while suffering has simply increased.” She stressed that “no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent.”
Her remarks came as United Nations officials reported that RSF fighters have carried out killings in El-Fasher, with over 450 people said to have been murdered at a hospital. Survivors have accused the RSF of ethnically targeted attacks and sexual assaults. Although the RSF denies killing people in the hospital, eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery and video footage circulating on social media suggest widespread atrocities.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul echoed Cooper’s remarks, describing the situation as dire. “Sudan is in absolutely an apocalyptic situation,” he said, directly accusing the RSF of responsibility for the violence in El-Fasher. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi added that Sudan had not received “the attention it deserves. A humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions has taken place there. We’ve got to stop that.”
Cooper announced an additional £5 million in emergency funding from the UK to help civilians trapped in Sudan’s escalating humanitarian disaster. She described the conditions in El-Fasher as “truly horrifying and utterly intolerable,” warning that around 260,000 people, half of them children, are trapped by famine-like conditions and intense fighting.
“In Sudan right now, there is just despair,” she said. “For too long, this terrible conflict has been neglected, while suffering has simply increased. Today I’m announcing from the UK government a further £5 million of humanitarian support in response to the violence in El-Fasher, on top of the £120 million the UK is already providing this year across Sudan.”
The UK’s new funding will be directed to emergency food aid, medical care and support for survivors of sexual violence, with £2 million specifically allocated to help those who have suffered rape and sexual assault. Cooper condemned reports that both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continue to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The UK’s existing £120 million aid programme supports the work of partners including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Sudan Humanitarian Fund and the Cash Consortium Sudan, providing food, medical assistance and protection for vulnerable communities.
British diplomats continue to press all parties to end hostilities, protect civilians and allow unrestricted humanitarian access. London is urging renewed international engagement to find a political solution to the conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the SAF and the RSF and has since engulfed the country in violence.
The situation in Darfur, historically a region plagued by ethnic violence and displacement, has deteriorated further since the RSF, a powerful paramilitary force led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, seized control of El-Fasher. It was the last major city in Darfur not under RSF control, and its fall has raised fears of further atrocities and ethnic cleansing.
Images and reports emerging from the city show entire neighbourhoods destroyed, bodies left in the streets and hospitals overwhelmed or attacked. UN officials say El-Fasher’s collapse may mark one of the deadliest episodes in the conflict.
Separately, Bahrain’s government withdrew accreditation for The Associated Press to cover the Manama Dialogue summit after a “post-approval review.” Officials did not provide further explanation. Earlier, the news agency had published a story on Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja beginning an “open-ended” hunger strike over his long-term imprisonment. Al-Khawaja ended his hunger strike on Friday after receiving letters from the European Union and Denmark concerning his case, his daughter Maryam Al-Khawaja said.
As international concern mounts, Sudan remains on the brink of deeper catastrophe. Aid agencies warn that millions face hunger, displacement and violence, while access to affected areas remains severely restricted. The call from London, Berlin and Amman signals growing frustration at the world’s failure to address the crisis.
