Foreign ministers from Germany, Jordan, and the United Kingdom on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, describing the situation as catastrophic following a paramilitary takeover of the last major city in the Darfur region.

United Nations officials have reported that fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the city of El-Fasher, allegedly killing more than 450 people in a hospital, alongside ethnically targeted killings and sexual assaults. While the RSF denies the hospital killings, survivors, satellite images, and videos circulating on social media indicate widespread violence in the city.

Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper highlighted the scale of the humanitarian disaster. “Mass executions, starvation, and the use of rape as a weapon of war are devastating women and children in what is becoming the largest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century,” she said. Cooper emphasized that “no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul described Sudan’s situation as “absolutely apocalyptic,” while Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi noted that the country has not received adequate international attention. “A humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions has taken place there. We’ve got to stop that,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Bahrain revoked an accreditation for The Associated Press to cover the summit following a review, coinciding with reporting on activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who had begun an open-ended hunger strike over his long detention. Al-Khawaja ended his strike on Friday after receiving letters from the European Union and Denmark, his daughter Maryam al-Khawaja said.

Source: AP