ICC warns of a dire humanitarian crisis in Sudan as the war rages on

The Deputy Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court reported to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday about the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Sudan, as civil war continues to impact the region.

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan reported that, "Famine is escalating, and humanitarian aid is not reaching those in dire need of it." She warns that the situation in Sudan could worsen.

Humanitarian organizations are warning about attacks on health care facilities across Sudan, alleging they are happening as mass atrocities are being committed against civilians.

Sudan’s civil war broke out in April 2023 after simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), escalated to fighting across the country.

Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, according to U.N. agencies. War has left many facing food insecurity and risk of famine and exposure to disease outbreaks like cholera, which remains hard to contain due to Sudan’s collapsed health care system.

Last month, Sudan’s military accepted a U.N. proposal for a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. However, the RSF did not explicitly agree to the truce and engaged in renewed clashes with the army in the southern part of the city this week.

Dorothy Shea, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, also expressed concern for the violence taking place in Sudan, while simultaneously condemning the ICC for filing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Galant.

Shea's comments come a day after the Trump administration announced that it is issuing sanctions against Francesca Albanese, an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. It is the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel's 21-month war in Gaza.