On the escalation of the war and the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan

B100519/2025

European Parliament resolution on the escalation of the war and the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan

(2025/2984(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Sudan,

– having regard to Council Decisions (CFSP) 2024/383, (CFSP) 2024/1784, (CFSP) 2024/2655, (CFSP) 2024/3154, Council Decision (CSFP) 2025/377 and (CFSP) 2025/1481 concerning restrictive measures in view of activities undermining the stability and political transition of Sudan,

– having regard to the UN Security Council resolutions concerning Sudan, including Resolution 1556 (2004) of 30 July 2004 and Resolution 2736 (2024) of 13 June 2024,

– having regard to the resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Sudan,

– having regard to the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, signed on 11 May 2023,

– having regard to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the additional protocols thereto,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

– having regard to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, of 18 December 1979,

– having regard to the UN Framework Classification for Resources,

– having regard to its resolution of 23 October 2025 on renewing the EU-Africa partnership: building common priorities ahead of the Angola Summit,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas in late October 2025, after an 18-month siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group seized control of the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and the last major stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in western Sudan;

B. whereas the takeover by the RSF of El Fasher has precipitated a dramatic wave of violence and displacement, with thousands reportedly killed in mass murders and over 100 000 people seeking refuge in nearby towns and displacement camps, suffering from grave psychological trauma, with experts warning about the ethnically-targeted nature of the acts of violence, which possibly constitute acts of genocide;

C. whereas since April 2023, the war between the SAF and the RSF has produced one of the world’s severest humanitarian and human rights crises, with nearly two thirds of Sudan’s population, including 16 million children, in dire need of humanitarian assistance, marked by mass displacement, famine, widespread attacks on civilians and humanitarian and medical workers, and the collapse of essential services;

D. whereas attempts to establish parallel political structures or de facto authorities in RSF-controlled areas directly threaten the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sudan;

E. whereas the RSF operates as a structured non-state armed group with a clear command hierarchy and significant territorial and military capabilities, and their tactics include systematic attacks against civilians, intimidation of populations, journalists and media workers, and efforts to destabilise institutional authority;

F. whereas RSF forces have committed atrocities during and since the siege of El Fasher, including mass killings, the perpetration of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, as a weapon of war, starvation as a weapon of war, torture, abductions, and deliberate attacks on hospitals and displacement sites;

G. whereas the SAF have also committed violations of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, large-scale attacks on civilians, vital infrastructure and hospitals, sexual and gender-based violence, obstruction of humanitarian access and arbitrary detentions;

H. whereas credible investigations have indicated that external actors, notably networks operating from or through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have supported RSF military procurement, financing, logistics and gold-laundering operations, in violation of the UN arms embargo and EU restrictive measures; whereas the EU is currently engaging in trade negotiations with the UAE;

I. whereas EU-made weapons are being used in warfare on Sudanese soil, leading to more civilian deaths;

J. whereas experts warn about the influence of other external actors, notably Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Türkiye, and links with the SAF, on the continued regional instability;

K. whereas the European Parliament, in its October 2025 resolution on renewing the EU-Africa partnership, called on all actors to increase transparency and to effectively ban the entry of all blood minerals into the EU;

L. whereas Sudanese civil society continues, under extreme risk, to monitor human rights abuses and provide essential assistance, such as the community-led Emergency Response Rooms; whereas women’s organisations, resistance committees and community responders remain central to protecting civilians and documenting violations;

1. Condemns, in the strongest terms, the grave atrocities committed by the RSF in El Fasher and across the rest of Sudan, including widespread, ethnically-targeted killings and violence, rape and sexual enslavement, torture, enforced disappearances, attacks on hospitals and humanitarian facilities, and the deliberate starvation of civilians, possibly constituting acts of genocide;

2. Strongly condemns the continuing violence committed by both armed forces in Sudan, and the serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed by all parties; condemns the blocking and looting of humanitarian aid and the targeting of humanitarian and medical workers, emergency responders and human rights defenders, which constitute serious violations of fundamental rights and international humanitarian law;

3. Urges the warring parties to immediately put an end to hostilities, cease all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, halt attacks on infrastructure and humanitarian aid, end the use of starvation and sexual violence as weapons of war, cease the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and to permit unfettered humanitarian access throughout the country, create humanitarian corridors, seek a negotiated solution and fulfil their Jeddah Declaration commitments;

4. Calls on all parties to immediately end the widespread use of rape and all other forms of sexual and gender-based violence as weapons of war; calls for support for the protection, care, treatment and psychosocial support for survivors of sexual violence;

5. Calls for prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations to hold perpetrators – including those in the chain of command – accountable;

6. Reaffirms, and calls for the EU, its Member States and all Sudanese and international actors to uphold Sudan’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, and the legitimacy of the civilian government in Khartoum; rejects any attempt to create parallel or rival authorities or political structures in RSF-controlled areas;

7. Calls for a civilian transition towards democracy, including a permanent ceasefire, free and fair elections, democratic institutions and the definitive end of military rule in Sudan, as the only viable path toward sustainable peace; strongly supports the efforts of the African Union and regional partners to facilitate a peace process; underlines that Sudanese civil society, particularly women-led organisations, must be central to the peace talks and lead the transition process; to this end, urges the EU and its Member States to proactively contribute to peace negotiations with partners in the international community, and politically and financially support Sudanese civil society, women-led organisations, human rights defenders and journalists;

8. Calls on all parties to ensure safe, timely and unhindered access to humanitarian actors across all regions of Sudan, including El Fasher and all other besieged or hard-to-reach areas; urges the establishment of protected humanitarian corridors and safe evacuation routes; calls for humanitarian relief to be provided in full compliance with humanitarian principles; emphasises that the protection of civilians and humanitarian access are obligations under international humanitarian law;

9. Calls on the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR), and the Member States, to increase their engagement in humanitarian diplomacy with a view to promoting respect for international humanitarian law, enabling humanitarian access and protecting civilians, in full compliance with the humanitarian principles of humanity, independence, neutrality and impartiality;

10. Calls on the VP/HR, the Commission, the Council and the Member States, having regard to their obligations under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to take strong action and work closely with international partners to prevent genocide in Sudan, to strengthen all possible diplomatic efforts at the highest political level to engage all parties to the conflict, and their sponsors, in ensuring the protection and assistance of civilians, including humanitarian and medical workers, and to significantly increase resources for the humanitarian response in Sudan, as well as in refugee camps in neighbouring countries, prioritising food security, medical care, shelter, protection services and the provision of support to local responders, including women-led organisations and protection services for survivors of sexual violence; calls on the VP/HR and the Commission to appoint a temporary special envoy for the situation in Sudan;

11. Condemns all forms of external interference fuelling the war in Sudan, including arms transfers, mercenary deployment, gold-smuggling and illicit financial networks, which undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and directly contribute to mass atrocities, and stresses that such actions may entail international responsibility;

12. Calls for EU authorities to investigate individuals and companies allegedly involved in RSF financing and procurement; urges the Council to impose restrictive measures where RSF links are established, as well as sanctions on military leaders of both the RSF and SAF responsible for human rights violations;

13. Expresses deep concern, in particular, over the documented involvement of networks based in, or operating through, the UAE supplying weapons, dual-use items, logistics and financing to the RSF, including through the laundering of conflict-gold and other revenues; calls on the UAE authorities to dismantle any such RSF-linked networks, and to fully cooperate with EU and UN investigations, in this regard; urges the Commission and the VP/HR to address this in all relevant EU-UAE frameworks; calls on the Commission to halt trade negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with the UAE until the UAE ceases its involvement in the war in Sudan; urges the Commission to take concrete measures to ban the entry of all blood minerals into the EU, including increased transparency on the origin of all conflict minerals, notably gold, to prevent the EU from fuelling destabilisation of, and violence in, resource-rich regions;

14. Calls on the Commission and the VP/HR to take appropriate action to sanction violations of the UN arms embargo, including those committed by the UAE; reiterates its call for a comprehensive UN arms embargo to cover the entirety of Sudan;

15. Calls on the VP/HR and the Council to assess, in light of the RSF’s deliberate and systematic attacks on civilians, use of terror tactics and efforts to destabilise Sudan, whether the conduct of the RSF fulfils the criteria for terrorist offences and terrorist groups laid down in Directive (EU) 2017/541, and, if so, to designate the RSF as a terrorist organisation, and adopt all necessary measures;

16. Urges the EU and its Member States to support the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, and to support the work of the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights-mandated Joint Fact-Finding Mission on the Human Rights Situation in Sudan; urges Sudan’s warring parties to fully cooperate with the ICC; calls for comprehensive accountability to address all crimes perpetrated in Sudan since April 2023, including supporting an expansion of the jurisdiction of the ICC investigation to the whole of Sudan, implementing arrest warrants, and ensuring the preservation of evidence and the protection of witnesses;

17. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Sudanese authorities, the United Arab Emirates authorities, the African Union, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the Pan-African Parliament.