Sudan: Briefing
Tomorrow morning (13 March), the Security Council will hold a briefing on the situation in Sudan. Denmark and the UK (the penholder on the file) requested the meeting to address the protection of civilians and the humanitarian consequences of the conflict, including implications for healthcare and reports of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), especially against women and children. The expected briefers are Catherine Russell, the Executive Director of UNICEF, and Christopher Lockyear, the Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). Sudan is expected to participate in the meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure.
Nearly two years into the war, which started on 15 April 2023, Sudan has witnessed a devastating humanitarian crisis, resulting in significant civilian casualties, mass displacement, and acute food and water shortages. The crisis has also been marked by a collapse of healthcare and essential services and grave violations of international humanitarian law, including widespread incidents of CRSV. The fighting has displaced approximately 12.8 million people, roughly 3.7 million of whom have sought refuge in Sudan’s neighbouring countries—the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Russell and several Council members are likely to express grave concern about the increase in grave violations perpetrated against children in the country. (The six grave violations, as determined by the Security Council, are child recruitment and use; killing and maiming; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; abductions; and the denial of humanitarian access.) According to a 4 March UNICEF report, the number of documented grave violations committed against children in Sudan in 2024 increased by 16 percent compared to 2023, which had already seen a sharp 473 percent rise from 2022. The report highlighted that the number of people at risk of gender-based violence (GBV) has more than tripled to an estimated 12.1 million people in the last two years. In 2024, a total of 221 rape cases against children were recorded across nine states, with girls accounting for 66 percent of survivors. Among the survivors, 16 were under five years old, including four one-year-olds. The report indicates that these figures “represent only a small fraction of total cases”, including due to underreporting.
On 6 March, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report documenting a widespread pattern of arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment of detainees by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Khartoum state. The report noted that thousands of people, including women and children, have been held without charge, with limited or no contact with their families, in squalid and overcrowded facilities. It also referenced reports of detainees dying due to lack of medical treatment in both SAF and RSF facilities. The report documented the use of children as young as 14 to serve as guards by the RSF, notably in Soba prison, and the detention of children as young as 13 alongside adults. It further reported instances of sexual violence and exploitation against women detainees in two RSF-controlled places of detention.
Tomorrow, the briefers and several Council members are likely to stress the urgent need to protect civilians, particularly vulnerable groups such as women and children. They are expected to condemn the incidents of CRSV, highlight the imperative to ensure accountability and justice for victims of violence, and call on the parties to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Some members may call on the parties to issue and enforce strict command orders to end instances of violations against children and to cease the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war.
The briefers are likely to highlight how the ongoing fighting is deepening the humanitarian crisis. They may also underscore the war’s devastating long-term effects on an entire generation of children in Sudan. According to the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Sudan, 30.4 million people—over half of the country’s population—will require humanitarian assistance this year, including 16 million children. Furthermore, approximately 24.6 million people are facing acute food insecurity, with famine conditions confirmed in five locations in North Darfur state and the eastern Nuba Mountains. According to UNICEF, nearly 3.2 million children under the age of five are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2025, 770,000 of whom are expected to face severe acute malnutrition, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.
Amid escalating humanitarian needs, Sudan’s healthcare system has collapsed, especially in conflict-affected areas. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 70 percent of health facilities in such areas are not operational. In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, more than 200 health facilities are not functioning, with severe shortages of medical staff, essential medicines, and life-saving supplies. On 25 February, MSF announced that it was forced to halt its operations in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons (IDP), saying that the current escalation of attacks and fighting is “making it impossible” for MSF to continue providing medical assistance in “such dangerous conditions”, notwithstanding the “widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs” in the IDP camp.
The briefers may emphasise that attacks against vital infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, have exacerbated the situation. As at mid-February, the WHO recorded nearly 150 attacks on healthcare centres in Sudan since April 2023, noting that the number is likely to be much higher. In a 10 March press release, MSF stated that a cholera outbreak in White Nile state was triggered by a power outage experienced after a power plant was reportedly struck by an RSF projectile on 16 February, which disrupted the local community’s access to clean water.
At tomorrow’s meeting, the briefers and several Council members are expected to call on the warring parties to ensure full and rapid humanitarian access through all modalities—including cross-line (across conflict lines within Sudan) and cross-border (across Sudan’s borders with some of the neighbouring countries)—and highlight impediments to such access. They may also emphasise the need to ensure the safety of vital civilian infrastructure, as well as humanitarian personnel and assets, while condemning incidents of apparent deliberate targeting of these individuals and facilities. Some members might use the opportunity to highlight efforts undertaken by the Sudanese authorities to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and call on humanitarian partners to enhance cooperation with them.
Several Council members are likely to reiterate the call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Some might call for the full implementation of relevant Council resolutions, including resolution 2736 of 13 June 2024, which demanded that the RSF stop the siege of El Fasher and called for an immediate halt to the fighting, and resolution 2286 of 3 May 2016 that condemned attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in armed conflict.
In light of the dire humanitarian situation, some might underscore the urgent need for the international community to act to alleviate the suffering of millions in Sudan and highlight the importance of sustained international engagement on Sudan. They may call on the international community to scale up its humanitarian response, to ensure that aid efforts match the scale and urgency of the crisis. On 10 March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the termination of 83 percent of programmes run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a decision that reports suggest could severely impact humanitarian operations in Sudan. That same day, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, issued a statement noting that funding cuts and suspensions by top government donors will end life-saving humanitarian assistance for millions of women, children, and other vulnerable groups across the country. She called on all major donors to reconsider their decisions to reduce funding and for other groups to urgently step up to fill the gaps left by these reductions. At the time of writing, Sudan’s 2025 HRP, requiring $4.16 billion, was only 6.4 percent funded.
Although not the primary focus of tomorrow’s meeting, some members might comment on recent political developments in the country. They may reiterate key points from Council members’ 5 March press statement, which was authored by the “A3 plus” grouping (Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Guyana). The statement expressed deep concern over the signing of a charter by the RSF to establish a parallel governing authority in Sudan. Such a move, Council members underscored, could further exacerbate the conflict, deepen divisions within the country, and aggravate an already dire humanitarian crisis. They also stressed the importance of a genuine, inclusive, and transparent national dialogue leading to a free, fair, and democratically elected national government, following a civilian-led transitional period.
