♦ Sudan news highlights ♦

A compact digest of the past weeks’ most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this regular digest in your inbox.

South Kordofan: Nearly 80 killed in drone strikes on kindergarten and hospital

06/12/2025 – KALOGI. A series of drone strikes killed at least 79 people and wounded dozens more, many of them children, in Kalogi, South Kordofan. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the first strike hit a kindergarten with more than 50 children inside. A second strike then hit a crowd of more than 150 people, including relatives searching for missing children. “As residents rushed to the local hospital, a third strike hit the entrance, where people had gathered to identify bodies and look for the missing.” Residents said many bodies were difficult to identify because of their injuries.

Kalogi executive director Essameddin Angalo said the death toll includes 43 children, but warned that the real toll is likely much higher as the hospital receiving casualties was also hit.

US steps up pressure on Sudan govt over chemical weapons allegations
 
01/12/2025 18:42 WASHINGTON D.C / PORT SUDAN / EL FASHER. Tensions between Washington and the Sudanese government have intensified after the de facto government, led by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), refused to engage with the Quartet, led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE. The Quartet peace talks have been endorsed by the RSF.
 
In response to the government’s refusal, the US has revived allegations of chemical weapons use as a key pressure tool against the Port Sudan administration, analyst and political scientist Dr Abdelwahab El Tayeb El Bashir explains. Human Rights Watch has affirmed that recent evidence of chemical weapons use by the Sudanese army aligns with earlier US allegations.

Drone attack kills Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers in Sudan
15/12/2025 – KADUGLI / ABYEI / DHAKA / DELLING. A drone strike hit a United Nations camp in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, on Saturday, killing six Bangladeshi peacekeepers and injuring eight others, the UN confirmed. The blast struck a fuel station inside the camp. Both the SAF and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) traded accusations over responsibility for the attack.
 
Sudan Media Forum: Ayin Network wins Dutch Human Rights Tulip award
11/12/2025 – THE HAGUE. The Ayin Network has won the 2025 Dutch Human Rights Tulip for its unwavering work documenting human rights violations in Sudan and amplifying the voices of affected civilians. Dutch Human Rights Ambassador Wim Geerts presented the honour at the Peace Palace in The Hague, praising Ayin’s “vital and courageous” documentation efforts and affirming that the Netherlands “will continue to stand firmly behind human rights defenders”.
 
ICC sentences Sudan Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb to 20 years for Darfur atrocities
09/12/2025 – THE HAGUE. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced former Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abdelrahman, known as ‘Ali Kushayb’ and feared in Darfur as the “Colonel of Colonels”, to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003–2004. The sentence follows his October conviction on 27 counts, including murder, torture, persecution, rape, and the forcible displacement of civilians.
 
Darfur-bound aid destroyed, 20 civilians dead as drones hit eastern Chad market
07/12/2025 – ADRÉ, CHAD. A drone strike on the weekly market in Adikon, near the Adré crossing at the Sudan–Chad border, left a large number of civilians dead and injured after a missile hit the market area and humanitarian aid trucks en route to North Darfur and Kordofan. A resident of Adikon said that more than ten charred bodies were recovered from shops that were completely destroyed by the explosions and ensuing fires.
 
Netherlands MP Sarah Dobbe visits Radio Dabanga, urges action to end Sudan war
03/12/2025 – AMSTERDAM. Dutch MP Sarah Dobbe of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) is urging the Netherlands and the wider international community to intensify efforts to stop the war in Sudan, cut the flow of weapons into the country, and hold foreign actors accountable for prolonging the conflict, particularly the United Arab Emirates.
 
‘Voices in the Shadows’: Online hate fuels violence across Africa, youth in Sudan at risk
28/11/2025 – JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. Report by Jared Wedge-Thomas. Online hate speech is accelerating conflicts across Africa faster than journalists and communities can respond, experts warned at ‘Voices in the Shadows Tackling Online Hate Speech in Conflict Affected Communities‘. The forum, held on November 10th, was hosted by Digihub Africa and partners, including Radio Dabanga, as part of their “Hold Before You Send It” campaign.
 
Amnesty International: New survivor testimonies of RSF killings and sexual violence in Darfur
26/11/2025 – LONDON / EL FASHER. Harrowing new testimonies – some of the first from eyewitnesses who fled El Fasher after the fall of the city – tell of widespread summary executions, sexual violence, kidnapping, and a litany of atrocities and human rights violations, after the RSF took control of the North Darfur capital on October 26, 2025.
 
RSF declares three-month truce, calls on SAF to join
25/11/2025 – BARA / EL FASHER / PORT SUDAN / WASHINGTON D.C. The paramilitary RSF have announced their agreement to a three-month humanitarian truce, saying they will halt fighting to allow aid to reach civilians. RSF commander Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo said that the ceasefire is “a national responsibility” and comes in response to mediation efforts “led by US President Donald Trump, the Quartet, the African Union and IGAD.”
 
New Yale HRL satellite evidence: ‘Empty markets, ongoing body disposal’ in North Darfur capital
23/11/2025 – NEW HAVEN, CT, USA / EL FASHER. Disturbing evidence has emerged from a report published by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab that the RSF continued to carry out activities likely related to the disposal of bodies in civilian areas of El Fasher.