UN warns of all-out civil war in South Sudan. US Gov't designates Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood terrorists

Report from BBC News
By Nichola Mandil, Juba, South Sudan, Alfred Lasteck and Jean Otalor

Monday 02 March 2026; Updated Tuesday 03 March 2026 - full copy:

Death toll in 'surprise' attack in South Sudan rises to 178, local official says

IMAGE SOURCE, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Image caption, The Ruweng authorities say the attackers came before dawn on Sunday (file photo)

The number of people killed in an attack in South Sudan on Sunday when a group of unidentified men launched an assault in the north of the country has risen to 178, a local official has told the BBC.

Describing the attack as carried out by dozens of armed youth, Ruweng Administrative Area's Information Minister James Monyluak Mijok alleged that they came from neighbouring Unity state and were linked to the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO).

The SPLA-IO has denied any involvement in the attack, accusing the authorities of politicising the violence.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the country is at risk of sliding back into full-scale civil war.

Medical aid groups have described the scale of casualties as alarming, even for a region that has experienced repeated outbreaks of violence.

''The dead include 90 children, women and elderly people, as well as 79 members of regional forces, including police,'' Mijok said, adding that many of them had been buried in a mass grave.

He said 73 people were still in hospital - many of whom were taken to neighbouring Abyei Administrative Area for treatment.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) described the situation in Abyei as extremely challenging.

"It was really difficult to manage the mass casualty situation, but many MSF and Ministry of Health staff came on their day off and from other facilities to support," Abraham Deng Lual Wek, an MSF nurse supervisor, told the BBC on Tuesday.

"For the surgical team, it was a challenge to manage all of the emergency cases between the two operating theatres," he said.

"Our triage area, emergency room and wards were full of patients, so we expanded capacity by using tents and a meeting space, which also filled quickly."

Mijok told the BBC that the attackers entered Abiemnom county in Ruweng before dawn on Sunday, at around 04:30 local time (02:30 GMT), when people were still sleeping and "surprised them".

He said the government forces on the ground "were outnumbered... The assailants set fire to homes and markets during fighting that lasted between three and four hours." Several senior local officials were killed including the county commissioner and executive director.

Mijok said government forces had since driven the attackers out and that authorities were now in full control.

He also alleged that officials in Unity state "must have had knowledge" of the plan to target Ruweng. The Unity state authorities have not responded to this accusation. It is not clear what may have triggered the attack.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) said about 1,000 civilians began seeking protection near its base in the affected area. The mission said it was alarmed by the surge in violence in the region over the past 48 hours.

"Such violence places civilians at grave risk and must stop immediately," said Anita Kiki Gbeho, officer in charge of Unmiss.

"The mission has enhanced its protective posture and is working with the government of South Sudan to support urgent efforts to restore calm and safeguard affected communities," she added.

Peacekeepers are providing emergency medical care to at least 23 people wounded in the clashes. The mission has called on all parties to cease hostilities immediately and engage in dialogue.

A similar incident in Abiemnom county last year left more than 42 civilians dead.

Following clashes in another part of the country - Jonglei sate - MSF said 26 of its staff were missing after weeks of escalating violence between government and opposition forces.

The charity has now suspended medical services in two parts of the state - Lankien and Pieri.

Its facility in Lankien was hit by a government air strike on 3 February, it added.

"Many of our staff were forced to flee the violence alongside their families. Several are now displaced, sheltering in remote areas with little access to food, water or basic services," the statement said.

South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has been beset by civil war, poverty and corruption since it was formed in 2011.

The UN has warned that an "all-out civil war" could return as a power-sharing deal struck in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Riek Machar, has unravelled over the past year.

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mgkvy4wr8o

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Terrorist Designation of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood

US GOVERNMENT PRESS STATEMENT

By MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE

Dated Monday 09 March 2026 - full copy:

Today, the Department of State is designating the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and intends to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, effective March 16, 2026.

The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood uses unrestrained violence against civilians to undermine efforts to resolve the conflict in Sudan and advance its violent Islamist ideology. Its fighters, many receiving training and other support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have conducted mass executions of civilians. The Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood’s al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade was designated pursuant to E.O. 14098 in September 2025 for its role in Sudan’s brutal war.

As the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranian regime has financed and directed malign activities globally through its IRGC. The United States will use all available tools to deprive the Iranian regime and Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.

Today’s actions are taken pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224. For more information about today’s announcement, see the Department of State’s fact sheet.

View original: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/terrorist-designation-of-the-sudanese-muslim-brotherhood/

Ends

Sudan: Starving children dying. Rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged El Fasher, North Darfur

INTERNATIONAL NGOs working in Sudan issued an urgent statement this week declaring that "sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion".

They said that "anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians". Read more in the following report.

From BBC News
By Barbara Plett Usher

Africa correspondent, BBC News
Dated Wednesday, 13 August 2025 - full copy:

 'Our children are dying' - rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged Sudan city

01:23

Media caption,

WATCH: BBC obtains rare video from inside besieged el-Fasher in Sudan

The women at the community kitchen in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are sitting in huddles of desperation.

"Our children are dying before our eyes," one of them tells the BBC.

"We don't know what to do. They are innocent. They have nothing to do with the army or [its paramilitary rival] the Rapid Support Forces. Our suffering is worse than what you can imagine."

Food is so scarce in el-Fasher that prices have soared to the point where money that used to cover a week's worth of meals can now buy only one. International aid organisations have condemned the "calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war".

The BBC has obtained rare footage of people still trapped in the city, sent to us by a local activist and filmed by a freelance cameraman.

The Sudanese army has been battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than two years after their commanders jointly staged a coup, and then fell out.

El-Fasher, in the western Darfur region, is one of the most brutal frontlines in the conflict.

Image caption, This may be the only meal these children get for a day

The hunger crisis is compounded by a surge of cholera sweeping through the squalid camps of those displaced by the fighting, which escalated this week into one of the most intense RSF attacks on the city yet.

The paramilitaries tightened their 14-month blockade after losing control of the capital Khartoum earlier this year, and stepped up their battle for el-Fasher, the last foothold of the armed forces in Darfur.

In the north and centre of the country where the army has wrestled back territory from the RSF, food and medical aid have begun to make a dent in civilian suffering.

But the situation is desperate in the conflict zones of western and southern Sudan.

At the Matbakh-al-Khair communal kitchen in el-Fasher late last month, volunteers turned ambaz into a porridge. This is the residue of peanuts after the oil has been extracted, normally fed to animals.

Sometimes it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: "There is no flour or bread."

"Now we've reached the point of eating ambaz. May God relieve us of this calamity, there's nothing left in the market to buy," he adds.

The UN has amplified its appeal for a humanitarian pause to allow food convoys into the city, with its Sudan envoy Sheldon Yett once more demanding this week that the warring sides observe their obligations under international law.

The army has given clearance for the trucks to proceed but the UN is still waiting for official word from the paramilitary group.

RSF advisers have said they believed the truce would be used to facilitate the delivery of food and ammunition to the army's "besieged militias" inside el-Fasher.

They have also claimed the paramilitary group and its allies were setting up "safe routes" for civilians to leave the city.

Local responders in el-Fasher can receive some emergency cash via a digital banking system, but it does not go very far.

"The prices in the markets have exploded," says Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"Today, $5,000 [£3,680] covers one meal for 1,500 people in a single day. Three months ago, the same amount could feed them for an entire week."

Doctors say people are dying of malnutrition. It is impossible to know how many - one report quoting a regional health official put the number at more than 60 last week.

BBC "The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic" -Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, Paediatrician

Hospitals cannot cope. Few are still operating. They have been damaged by shelling and are short of medical supplies to help both the starving, and those injured in the continual bombardment.

"We have many malnourished children admitted in hospital but unfortunately there is no single sachet of [therapeutic food]," says Dr Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, a paediatrician at the Al Saudi Hospital, noting that the five severely malnourished children currently in the ward also have medical complications.

"They are just waiting for their death," he says.

When hunger crises hit, those who usually die first are the most vulnerable, the least healthy or those suffering from pre-existing conditions.

"The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic," the doctor tells us in a voice message.

"The children of el-Fasher are dying on a daily basis due to lack of food, lack of medicine. Unfortunately, the international community is just watching."

International non-governmental organisations working in Sudan issued an urgent statement, external this week declaring that "sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion".

They said that "anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians".

"There is no safe passage out of the city, with roads blocked and those attempting to flee facing attacks, taxation at checkpoints, community-based discrimination and death," the organisations said.

Hundreds of thousands of people did flee in recent months, many from the Zamzam displaced persons camp at the edge of el-Fasher, seized by the RSF in April.

They arrive in Tawila, a town 60km (37 miles) west of the city, weak and dehydrated, with accounts of violence and extortion along the road from RSF-allied groups.

Life is safer in the crowded camps, but they are stalked by disease - most deadly of all: cholera.

It is caused by polluted water and has killed hundreds in Sudan, triggered by the destruction of water infrastructure and lack of food and medical care, and made worse by flooding due to the rainy season.

Image caption, Makeshift centres have been built to treat patients who have cholera

Unlike el-Fasher, in Tawila aid workers at least have access, but their supplies are limited, says John Joseph Ocheibi, the on-site project coordinator for a group called The Alliance for International Medical Action.

"We have shortages in terms of [washing facilities], in terms of medical supplies, to be able to deal with this situation," he tells the BBC. "We are mobilizing resources to see how best we can be able to respond."

Sylvain Penicaud of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates there are only three litres of water per person per day in the camps, which, he says, is "way below the basic need, and forces people to get water from contaminated sources".

Zubaida Ismail Ishaq is lying in the tent clinic. She is seven months pregnant, gaunt and exhausted. Her story is a tale of trauma told by many.

She tells us she used to trade when she had a little money, before fleeing el-Fasher.

Her husband was captured by armed men on the road to Tawila. Her daughter has a head injury.

Zubaida and her mother came down with cholera shortly after arriving in the camp.

"We drink water without boiling it," she says. "We have no-one to get us water. Since coming here, I have nothing left."

Back in el-Fasher we hear appeals for help from the women clustered at the soup kitchen - any kind of help.

"We're exhausted. We want this siege lifted," says Faiza Abkar Mohammed. "Even if they airdrop food, airdrop anything - we're completely exhausted."

Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening

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'I lost a baby and then rescued a child dodging air strikes in Sudan's civil war'
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View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxp0qyn6dqo

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