War in Sudan: Humanitarian collapse, fighting, deadlock, December 2025

Mass atrocities successful Kordofan, the seizure of a cardinal oilfield, and a “crime scene” successful el-Fasher people a deadly period arsenic planetary backing dries up.

The brutal warfare successful Sudan, present heavy into its 3rd year, has shifted its centre of gravity to the strategical cardinal portion of Kordofan from Darfur, threatening to divided the state successful two.

December saw the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) grow its offensive, seizing captious lipid infrastructure and laying siege to cardinal cities, portion the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) intensified aerial campaigns.

Humanitarian conditions deed a caller nadir arsenic the United Nations warned of a “survival mode” operations program owed to terrible backing cuts, leaving millions astatine hazard of starvation successful 2026.

Here are the cardinal battlefield, humanitarian, and governmental developments for December 2025.

Fighting and subject control

• Battle for lipid and the South Sudan deal: On December 8, the RSF seized the strategical Heglig oilfield – Sudan’s largest – successful West Kordofan. Following a deadly drone onslaught connected the facility, a tripartite statement involving SAF, RSF, and Juba saw South Sudanese troops deploy to unafraid the tract and neutralise it from combat.
• Kordofan arsenic the caller epicentre: Violence surged crossed Kordofan. The RSF claimed power of Babnusa, the gateway to West Kordofan, though the service denied the full autumn of the city. Meanwhile, the RSF maintained “airtight sieges” connected Kadugli and Dilling successful South Kordofan, portion pushing towards the strategical North Kordofan capital, el-Obeid.
• Escalation of drone warfare: Drones were utilized extensively by some sides with devastating effect. A onslaught connected the Atbara powerfulness works successful River Nile authorities plunged large cities, including Port Sudan, into darkness. In Kalogi, South Kordofan, a drone onslaught connected a preschool and infirmary killed astatine slightest 116 people, including 46 children.
• Attacks connected UN Peacekeepers: On December 13, a drone onslaught deed a UN logistics basal successful Kadugli, sidesplitting six Bangladeshi peacekeepers and wounding 8 others. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, stating it whitethorn represent a warfare crime.
• El-Fasher a “crime scene”: A UN squad gained entree to el-Fasher for the archetypal clip since its autumn successful October, describing the mostly deserted metropolis arsenic a “crime scene“. A study by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab documented a systematic RSF run to pain bodies and destruct grounds of wide killings.
• Military level crash: An Ilyushin Il-76 subject transport level crashed astatine Port Sudan’s Osman Digna airbase owed to a method malfunction, sidesplitting the full crew.

Humanitarian crisis

• Aid backing collapse: The UN announced it has been forced to halve its 2026 entreaty to $23bn owed to donor fatigue. Consequently, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned it indispensable chopped nutrient rations by 70 percent starting successful January, affecting communities already facing famine.
• Sudan tops exigency list: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) placed Sudan astatine the apical of its Emergency Watchlist for 2026, citing the convergence of conflict, economical collapse, and shrinking planetary support.
• Systematic intersexual violence: A study by the Strategic Initiative for Women successful the Horn of Africa (SIHA) documented astir 1,300 cases of intersexual violence, attributing 87 percent of them to the RSF. The study elaborate however rape is being utilized arsenic a limb of war, peculiarly against non-Arab groups.
• Health catastrophe: Malnutrition rates person skyrocketed, with UNICEF reporting that 53 percent of children screened successful North Darfur are acutely malnourished. In Khartoum, a survey recovered 97 percent of households look nutrient shortages, arsenic authorities began exhuming makeshift graves successful residential areas to determination bodies to authoritative cemeteries.
• EU Air Bridge: The European Union launched an “air bridge” cognition to present life-saving supplies to Darfur, describing the concern determination arsenic “one of the world’s hardest places to reach”.

Diplomacy and governmental developments

• Deadlock astatine the UN: Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris presented a peace plan to the UN Security Council proposing an RSF withdrawal and disarmament. The RSF rejected the connection arsenic “wishful thinking” and “fantasy”.
• Al-Burhan rejects compromise: Speaking from Turkiye, SAF main Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ruled retired negotiations, insisting the warfare would lone extremity with the RSF’s “surrender” and disarmament.
• Civilian “Third Pole”: In Nairobi, civilian leaders, including erstwhile PM Abdalla Hamdok and rebel person Abdelwahid al-Nur, signed a declaration forming a caller antiwar bloc, attempting to reclaim governmental bureau from the warring generals.
• US unit and sanctions: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio intensified diplomatic efforts, stating President Donald Trump is personally involved. The US Treasury sanctioned 4 Colombian nationals and companies for recruiting mercenaries to combat for the RSF.
• ICC Conviction: In a historical verdict, the International Criminal Court sentenced erstwhile Popular Defence Forces (Janjaweed) person Ali Kushayb to 20 years successful situation for warfare crimes committed successful Darfur (2003-2004), the archetypal specified condemnation for the region.