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Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Seif Magango on the armed conflict in Sudan
“A report published this morning by our Office details multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in densely-populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people – particularly in the capital Khartoum, in Omdurman, Kordorfan and Darfur during fighting between April and December 2023,” said Magango, speaking from Nairobi.
“Just this week, credible video evidence reviewed by our Office shows that several students travelling by road in North Kordofan State may have been beheaded by men in SAF uniform in El-Obeid City, based on their perceived ethnicity as being RSF supporters. The video footage which was posted on social media on 15 February shows troops parading with decapitated heads in the street while chanting ethnic slurs,” he said.
In Darfur, thousands have been killed in RSF attacks, some of which were ethnically motivated. The report finds that between May and November 2023, the RSF and its allied Arab militia carried out at least 10 attacks against civilians in El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing thousands of people, most of them from the African Masalit ethnic community. There were also killings by the RSF and its allies in the town of Morni and in Ardamata – where at least 87 bodies were buried in a mass grave.
“By mid-December, more than 6.7 million people had been displaced by the conflict – both within Sudan and into neighbouring countries. This number has since increased to more than eight million,” the spokesperson said.
The report cites the “People’s Authority to Support the Sudanese Armed Forces”, a pro-SAF entity, as stating that it had armed 255,000 young men in camps across Sudan. Children were also recruited by the RSF from Arab tribes in Darfur and Kordofan. African ethnic communities, including the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa also reportedly responded to recruitment campaigns by the SAF, it finds.
“There must be prompt, thorough, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and those responsible must be brought to justice,” Magango said.
ENDS
In Geneva:
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org
Jeremy Laurence - + 41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org
Thameen Al-Kheetan - + 41 76 223 77 62 / thameen.alkheetan@un.org
In Nairobi:
Seif Magango - + 254 788 343 897/ seif.magango@un.org
Tag and share - Twitter: @UNHumanRights and Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
STORY: UN Human Rights Spokesperson Seif Magango on the armed conflict in Sudan
TRT: 02:04
SOURCE: UNTV/OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 23 February 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Exterior shot : Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot : Briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English)—Seif Magango, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “A report published this morning by our Office details multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in densely-populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people – particularly in the capital Khartoum, in Omdurman, Kordorfan and Darfur during fighting between April and December 2023.”
4. Cut away: Briefing room.
5. SOUNDBITE (English)—Seif Magango, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Just this week, credible video evidence reviewed by our Office shows that several students travelling by road in North Kordofan State may have been beheaded by men in SAF uniform in El-Obeid City, based on their perceived ethnicity as being RSF supporters. The video footage which was posted on social media on 15 February shows troops parading with decapitated heads in the street while chanting ethnic slurs.”
6. Cut away: Briefing room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English)—Seif Magango, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “By mid-December, more than 6.7 million people had been displaced by the conflict – both within Sudan and into neighbouring countries. This number has since increased to more than eight million. ”
8. Cut away: Briefing room.
9. SOUNDBITE (English)—Seif Magango, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “There must be prompt, thorough, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and those responsible must be brought to justice.”
10. Cut away: Briefing room.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
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- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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