Fighting across Sudan has driven 13 million people from their homes, the United Nations said on Monday, as the war entered its fourth year with no end in sight.
Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s political affairs chief, told the Security Council that clashes have intensified since her last briefing in June.
About 8.7 million people are now displaced inside Sudan’s eighteen states, she said, calling the scale of suffering staggering.
The UN human rights office documented roughly 1,400 civilian deaths between January and June, DiCarlo said, including 1,100 killed in drone strikes.
The true death toll since the conflict began remains unknown, she added, though estimates suggest it could reach hundreds of thousands.
Investigators also recorded 838 cases of sexual violence, DiCarlo said, with women and girls bearing the overwhelming brunt.
Markets, schools, fuel stations and water facilities have been repeatedly struck by drones, she said, describing civilian infrastructure as routine collateral damage.
Recent fighting has concentrated in North Kordofan, West Darfur, North Darfur and Blue Nile, DiCarlo said, raising fears of regional spillover.
She warned the war could spread toward Chad and Ethiopia, straining land, water and services already stretched thin.
Both warring parties remain locked in a zero-sum mindset, DiCarlo said, treating any enemy gain as their own loss.
Separately, humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said more than two-thirds of Sudanese need urgent aid to survive.
Aid agencies reached nearly 11 million people by mid-year, he said, just over half of this year’s target.
Funding remains critically short, Fletcher said, with the $2.87 billion response plan only 40% covered.
“Sudan is not lacking in analysis, but in action,” Fletcher told the Council, urging members to move beyond words.
The UN reaffirmed support for a US-Saudi-Egyptian-Emirati push toward a truce, with talks set for Addis Ababa in September.
