Smoke billows above residential buildings in Khartoum on April 16, 2023. | AFP

LONDON, (Eye Radio) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has appealed to Sudan’s waring parties to uphold international humanitarian law and take concrete steps to protect civilians, as the country prepares to mark the second anniversary of a devastating civil war.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) remain locked in a deadly conflict which erupted in Khartoum on April 15, 2023, following a longstanding power struggle between military leaders Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict has killed estimated tens of thousands, displaced millions and left nearly half the country’s population in extreme hunger, thus triggering the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

In a press statement, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric underscored the heavy toll the conflict has inflicted on millions of Sudanese civilians.

“Two years of ruinous civil war have been seared into the lives of millions of Sudanese. The conflict has flared across the country, engulfing urban areas and urban centers. Civilians are trapped in a relentless nightmare of death and destruction,” Spoljaric said.

“Civilians are killed and injured, their homes looted, and their livelihoods destroyed. Sexual violence is rampant and seeding trauma that will reverberate for generations.”

The paramilitary RSF and its allies have recently killed 56 civilians over two days in attacks on a newly-retaken town in El-Fasher in North Darfur, according to activists who spoke to French news agency AFP.

The killings, which occurred on April 11 and 12, targeted residents in Um Kadadah, around 180 kilometers east of El-Fasher, a network of volunteers coordinating aid across Sudan said.

The committee’s report came a day after the United Nations said more than 100 people were feared dead in RSF attacks on El-Fasher and two nearby famine-hit camps for displaced people.

Mr. Spoljaric further noted that humanitarian workers and first responders are also deliberately attacked while carrying out their lifesaving work. He stated that the conflict is made deadlier by intentional attacks on civilian infrastructure.

The humanitarian official warned that the horrors inflicted on civilians in Sudan should never be seen as inevitable consequences of war, adding a ceasefire would give people desperately needed respite.

According to him, much of the suffering over the last two years would have been prevented had the rules of war been followed.

“Reductions in humanitarian funding are deepening this misery. As the conflict enters its third year, I call on the parties to the conflict to honor the commitments they made in Jeddah to uphold international humanitarian law and take concrete steps today to protect civilians.

“To do anything but only fuels more violence, more death, more destruction that Sudan—and the world—cannot afford.”

On April 15, 2025, world leaders will gather in London for a high-level conference co-hosted by the United Kingdom, the European Union, France, and Germany.

The conference, which will bring together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries and organizations – but has not invited the two warring parties – is aimed at establishing a group that can drive the warring factions closer towards peace.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), another frontline aid group in Sudan, reiterated its call on the warring parties and their allies to ensure that civilians, humanitarian personnel, and medical teams are protected.

MSF said all restrictions on the movement of humanitarian supplies and staff must be removed, especially as the rainy season fast approaches.

“The warring parties are not only failing to protect civilians. They are actively compounding their suffering,” says Claire San Filippo, MSF Emergency Coordinator.

“Wherever you look in Sudan, you will find needs overwhelming, urgent, and unmet. Millions are receiving almost no humanitarian assistance, medical facilities and staff remain under attack, and the global humanitarian system is failing to deliver even a fraction of what’s required.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 70 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas are barely operational or have closed, leaving millions of people without access to critical care.