US seeks humanitarian truce in Sudan while ICC looks at el-Fasher
rampage
[November 04, 2025]
By MOLLY QUELL and FAY ABUELGASIM
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United States is working with both
sides in Sudan’s war for a possible humanitarian truce, a U.S. envoy
told The Associated Press on Monday, while International Criminal Court
prosecutors said they are trying to preserve evidence from last week's
rampage through a besieged city in the Darfur region.
The latest alleged atrocities in famine-hit el-Fasher “are part of a
broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region”
and “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the ICC
statement said, noting that evidence could be used in future
prosecutions.
The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting Sudanese troops,
captured el-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months. Witnesses have
reported RSF fighters going house to house, killing civilians and
committing sexual assaults. According to the World Health Organization,
gunmen killed at least 460 people at a hospital and abducted doctors and
nurses.
Details have been slow to emerge as communications are poor. The death
toll remains unclear.
The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal two-year war in
Africa’s third-largest country. The ICC’s chief prosecutor told the
Security Council in January there were grounds to believe both sides may
be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.
Efforts toward a truce
U.S. adviser for African affairs Massad Boulos told the AP in an
interview on Monday that the U.S. is working with the Sudanese army and
RSF to bring about a humanitarian truce and could have an announcement
“soon.”
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A Sudanese child who fled el-Fasher city with family after Sudan's
paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people in the western Darfur
region, receives treatment at a camp in Tawila, Sudan, Sunday, Nov.
2, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abaker)
“We were working on this for the last almost 10 days with both
sides, hoping to finalize the details," Boulos said. The U.S.-led
plan would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a
nine-month political process, he said.
The U.S. has been working for months with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
the United Arab Emirates, calling themselves the Quad, on ways to
end the war. In September, they called for a humanitarian truce for
an initial three months to deliver desperately needed aid.
“The atrocities that we’ve seen, of course, are totally
unacceptable,” Boulos added of videos showing RSF and allied gunmen
committing atrocities against civilians including beatings, killings
and sexual assaults. The AP has not been able to independently
verify the videos.
Earlier this month, the ICC for the first time convicted a suspect
of crimes in Darfur after looking into atrocities in the region for
more than two decades. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–al-Rahman, also known as
Ali Kushayb, was found guilty of ordering mass executions and
bludgeoning two prisoners to death with an ax.
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Abuelgasim reported from Cairo.
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