Sudan's war intensified as it entered its third year, with civilian deaths, including summary executions, and ethnic violence rising during the first six months of 2025, a UN report said on Friday.
"Sudan's conflict is a forgotten one, and I hope that my office's report puts the spotlight on this disastrous situation where atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed," UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report by his office.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal war between the regular armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The war has effectively split the country, with the army holding the north, east and centre, while the RSF dominates parts of the south and nearly all of the western Darfur region.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire between warring parties have so far failed.
Friday's report said that the rate of civilian deaths has increased, with 3,384 civilians dying in the first six months of 2025, a figure that represented 80 percent of the 4,238 civilian deaths in 2024.
"Several trends remained consistent during the first half of 2025: a continued pervasiveness of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and the widespread use of retaliatory violence against civilians, particularly on an ethnic basis, targeting individuals accused of 'collaboration' with opposing parties," it said.
New trends include the use of drones, including in attacks on civilian sites and in the north and east of the country, which have up to now been largely spared by the war, it said.
"The increasing ethnicisation of the conflict, which builds on longstanding discrimination and inequalities, poses grave risks for longer-term stability and social cohesion within the country," rights chief Turk warned, urging countries to use their influence to stop the conflict.
"Many more lives will be lost without urgent action to protect civilians and without the rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid," he said.
