Rights report warns of ‘sharp escalation in killings against Darfur civilians’

A human rights report has warned of a serious deterioration in security and humanitarian conditions across Darfur, as the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) moves towards its third year.

According to a recently published report by the Adala Centre for Studies and Research, December 2025 witnessed a marked surge in grave human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, drone strikes, arbitrary arrests, kidnappings for ransom, widespread looting and forced displacement.

South and North Darfur emerged as the most affected states, with markets and residential areas turning into open theatres of violence amid an almost total absence of civilian protection.

The report documents a sharp rise in drone attacks, particularly in Nyala, Katila locality, Kutum locality, and El Malha locality.

On December 8, a drone strike hit a mass civilian gathering in South Darfur’s Katila locality, killing more than 90 people, including women and children. On December 25, another drone crashed into the fuel market in South Darfur’s capital of Nyala, causing deaths, injuries and extensive damage to civilian property.

In North Darfur, aerial attacks struck El Malha market, killing ten people, while shelling of Kutum market left two dead and nine injured, including a child wounded inside his home. The report describes these incidents as part of a recurring pattern of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, in violation of international humanitarian law.

Beyond aerial bombardment, the report highlights escalating insecurity along key roads, particularly the route linking Abu Ajura in the El Salam locality of South Darfur, where armed groups linked to the RSF have repeatedly looted passenger vehicles.

Traders reported a systematic campaign targeting drivers at weekly markets, further paralysing livelihoods.

Adala also recorded multiple extrajudicial killings, including the murder of civilians in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya locality, as well as the killing of Nyala merchant Adam Haroun by unidentified gunmen. 

Kidnapping for ransom intensified in Nyala and Kabkabiya. Gunmen abducted traders from the main Nyala market, demanding hundreds of millions of Sudanese pounds for their release. In Kabkabiya, armed men stormed the home of merchant Abdelaziz Abdelrahman Rahma and detained him under threat of execution unless a ransom was paid.

The report further documents the death of a former acting director general of the Ministry of Finance inside an RSF detention facility, reportedly due to torture and complications from diabetes. It also notes the continued detention of tribal leader Abbas Mohamed Ali, mayor of the Barno tribe, held for more than eight months without charge.

Humanitarian conditions continue to collapse. Displacement camps face acute shortages of food and water, while health services have all but ceased. In Nyala alone, more than 13 kidney failure patients died after the dialysis centre shut down for a week due to funding disputes.

Adala holds the SAF responsible for civilian casualties resulting from aerial bombardment, while attributing a broad and systematic pattern of abuses against civilians to the RSF.

It warns that continued impunity will drive further humanitarian and security collapse across Darfur, and calls on the United Nations and the international community to urgently strengthen civilian protection, open safe humanitarian corridors and support accountability mechanisms.

‘Blue Nile attacks’

Violence has spread beyond Darfur. In Blue Nile state, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North reported yesterday that a SAF drone strike wounded 32 civilians, most of them women and children, as they returned from Yabus market.

The SAF issued no official comment, though military sources told Sudan Tribune that air force strikes targeted supply trucks and fighter assembly points in the area.

In North Darfur’s towns of Jargeira and Mastura, the RSF and the Joint Forces issued conflicting statements, each claiming victory in fierce battles. With no independent access to the area, Radio Dabanga could not verify the claims.

The Joint Force accused the RSF of killing and kidnapping civilians after the fighting, leaving 19 people dead in Jargeira, in what it described as a serious breach of international humanitarian law.