UN News Today 14 November 2025 |

Sudan war: aid teams call for urgent access to thousands trapped in El Fasher

Just how many people are still trapped in the Sudanese city of El Fasher?

That’s the burning question for relatives of the many thousands of people believed to still be there, since paramilitary fighters overran the regional capital of North Darfur last month, after a 500-day siege.

Leading calls for justice and accountability for the many victims of likely mass executions based on ethnicity, UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday called for immediate international action to stop the violence.

He told Member States in a special session that bloodstains on the ground in El Fasher can be seen from space.

“We warned about the spread of famine, as people starved to death. And we warned that the fall of the city to the Rapid Support Forces would result in a bloodbath…I urge everyone with influence to stand up for international law. That means advocating for an urgent referral by the Security Council of the situation in the entire country to the International Criminal Court. And it means making the arms embargo a reality.”

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, nearly 100,000 people have fled El Fasher and villages close by in the last two weeks alone.

Families arriving in nearby Tawila have recounted “unimaginable horrors” before and after fleeing, the agency said.

Ukraine: UN condemns latest deadly attack targeting civilians in Kyiv

A fresh wave of large-scale Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities overnight into Friday left civilians dead and many others injured, aid agencies have reported.

The UN’s top aid official in Ukraine condemned the strikes, which reportedly included a Russian drone that slammed into an apartment block in the capital, Kyiv.

“I condemn the ongoing pattern of massive civilian harm caused by these strikes, which are destroying essential infrastructure just as winter sets in,” said Matthias Schmale.

Last month, Ukrainians endured emergency power cuts across multiple regions, caused by Russia’s renewed large-scale strikes on energy infrastructure, UN human rights investigators said.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, described speaking to a boy, Viacheslav,  whose home was damaged in the strikes. His neighbours were among those reportedly killed.

“First there was a rumble, it grew louder, and then everything exploded. Our windows blew out, I was very scared.” he said.

‘Mobs’ target Palestinians in occupied West Bank, warns OHCHR

To the occupied West Bank, where evidence appears to show “mobs” of masked Israeli settlers carrying out arson attacks on Palestinian homes and property.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, condemned this week’s attacks as abhorrent and said they reflected a wider pattern of increased violence against Palestinians.

Several people were reportedly injured in the attacks, which included a raid on a dairy factory and delivery trucks and homes, which were set ablaze.

The surge in violence comes as Israeli authorities have also ramped up home demolitions in addition to property seizures and the forcible displacement and transfer of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and the military, OHCHR said.

It also reiterated that Israel’s assertion of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and its annexation of parts of it are in breach of international law which has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.