US President Donald Trump’s Africa envoy, Massad Boulos, has described the war in Sudan as “the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis” and urged the country’s rival forces to quickly agree to a three-month humanitarian truce.
Speaking to AFP in Doha on Saturday, Boulos warned that the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has reached catastrophic proportions, with tens of thousands killed and nearly 12 million people displaced since fighting erupted in April 2023.
He singled out recent atrocities in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where the RSF seized full control at the end of October after an 18-month siege. Rights groups and UN experts say the takeover unleashed massacres, mass rape and ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities, prompting investigations into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide.
“Especially what happened in El-Fasher in the last two or three weeks. We’ve all seen those videos. We’ve seen those reports. Those atrocities are absolutely unacceptable. This must stop very quickly,” Boulos said.
Washington and its partners are now pressing Sudan’s warring sides to endorse a three-month humanitarian truce, Boulos said, to allow aid agencies to reach besieged populations and restore some basic services.
“It’s being discussed and it’s being negotiated… we’re urging them to accept this proposal and implement it immediately, without delay,” he told AFP, adding that the “top priority right now remains the humanitarian aspect.”
The army-aligned government in Port Sudan has so far signalled it intends to press on with the war, even after receiving a US ceasefire proposal. The RSF has publicly welcomed the idea of a humanitarian truce but has continued offensive operations on the ground, including in Darfur and the Kordofan region.
In September, the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt jointly called for a humanitarian truce to be followed by a permanent ceasefire and a transition to a civilian-led government — explicitly stating that neither of the current belligerents should be part of the future transitional authority.
Boulos said Washington hopes to achieve a “breakthrough in the coming weeks” on that broader political roadmap, but warned that without an immediate halt to attacks, Sudan’s already dire humanitarian catastrophe will deepen further. Aid agencies say millions in Sudan are now facing acute hunger, disease outbreaks and near-total collapse of health services, with El-Fasher emblematic of how diplomacy has so far lagged behind the speed and brutality of the war.
