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Humanitarian workers are being increasingly targeted in Gaza and in Sudan, where five Red Crescent volunteers were killed this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross's director-general Pierre Krahenbuhl told AFP Friday.Israel has repeatedly launched deadly strikes on Gaza despite a ceasefire agreed earlier in October and reports have emerged of atrocities by paramilitaries during Sudan's brutal civil war."It is now becoming a pattern of violence against humanitarian workers in Sudan, in Gaza, and others, that we find very dramatic," Krahenbuhl said in an interview before the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain."There is a wider erosion of respect for international humanitarian law," which had "clearly not" been respected in either conflict, he added.On Tuesday, the ICRC said five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers were killed in North Kordofan state, a major battleground of the war that has raged since April 2023.There were also reports of 460 people killed at a hospital in El-Fasher, which recently fell to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries.The capture of El-Fasher, following an RSF siege of more than 18 months, raised fears of a return to Sudan's ethnically targeted atrocities of 20 years ago.The western city has been cut off from all communications since its fall, but survivors who reached the nearby town of Tawila told AFP of mass killings, children shot in front of their parents and civilians beaten and robbed as they fled."We are dealing with probably one of the most dramatic conflicts of our time," Krahenbuhl said, pointing to attacks against civilians, "the extensive use of sexual violence" and the targeting of medical facilities.Krahenbuhl said Gaza's destruction was beyond anything he had seen before, and warned that aid supplies remained woefully short."In the 25 or 30 years that I've been working in the humanitarian field, I have not seen that level of destruction," he said."Not enough (aid) is coming into the Gaza Strip yet," the ICRC official added. "What people need is, of course, far bigger than what we currently are able to deliver."The basic needs of Gazans are so immense "that what we are starting to do with improved humanitarian access is only the tip of the iceberg".The United Nations also warned this week that although aid had increased since the truce, humanitarian groups faced funding shortfalls and problems coordinating with Israeli authorities.Separately, Krahenbuhl hit out at Israel's order this week banning the ICRC from visiting Palestinians held under a law that allows for their indefinite detention.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said resuming the visits, which were suspended during the Gaza war, would "seriously harm the state's security".But there was "no way in which our visits can pose a security threat or a national security threat", Krahenbuhl said, urging Israel to lift the ban.

Thousands of civilians remained trapped in Sudan's stricken city of El-Fasher, with fears growing for their safety, the United Nations and local groups said on Monday, after paramilitary forces claimed control of the army's last stronghold in the western Darfur region.Since May 2024, El-Fasher has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting a brutal war with Sudan's army for over two years.Footage shared by pro-democracy activists on Monday purportedly showed dozens of people lying dead on the ground alongside burned-out vehicles.AFP was unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut off by a media blackout.The syndicate expressed "deep concern for the safety of journalists" in El-Fasher, adding that independent reporter Muammar Ibrahim has been detained by RSF forces since Sunday.The RSF said on Sunday they had seized control of the city, but the army and its allies did not respond to requests for comment.If confirmed, the city's capture would mark a significant turning point in Sudan's war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023.It would give the RSF control over all five state capitals in Darfur, consolidating its parallel administration in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.Such a shift could potentially partition Sudan, with the army holding the north, east and centre, and the RSF dominating Darfur and parts of the south."This represents a terrible escalation in the conflict," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in answer to an AFP question on Monday, adding that "the level of suffering that we are witnessing in Sudan is unbearable".Around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped in El-Fasher without aid, where many have resorted to eating animal fodder.Despite RSF assurances of civilian protection, the local resistance committee accused the paramilitaries of committing atrocities, saying that since Sunday, innocent civilians had suffered "the worst forms of violence and ethnic cleansing."A video circulated by the RSF appeared to show fighters detaining dozens of men in civilian clothing accusing them of supporting the army and the Joint Forces.Fighting, pro-democracy activists said on Sunday night, continued "in the vicinity of El-Fasher airport and several areas west of the city," with a "complete absence of air support", citing failures by the army and its allies to protect residents.The army-aligned governor of Darfur called on Monday for the protection of civilians in El-Fasher and demanded "an independent investigation into the violations and massacres carried out by the militia away from public view."The UN last month voiced alarm over potential massacres targeting non-Arab communities in El-Fasher, similar to those reported after the RSF captured the nearby Zamzam camp in April.The United Nations's migration agency said 2,500 to 3,000 people fled El-Fasher on Sunday, seeking safety within the city or westward to Tawila and Mellit towns.Sudan's de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, appeared publicly on Sunday night but only for a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in Port Sudan.The army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council said they discussed the "siege imposed by the terrorist Rapid Support militia on El-Fasher."Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), called for safe passage for civilians trapped in the fighting.Access to the city remains severely restricted due to ongoing combat.Since August, the RSF have intensified artillery and drone attacks on El-Fasher, gradually eroding the army's last defensive positions.Despite repeated international appeals for a ceasefire, with both the RSF and the army accused of committing atrocities, neither side has shown willingness to compromise.Representatives from the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates met in Washington on Friday to plot a path towards "peace and stability in Sudan" and a transition to civilian rule, according to a statement by US senior advisor for Africa Massad Boulos.But the meeting appeared not to yield any tangible progress."It is clear that... it is not only a Sudanese problem, with the army and Rapid Support Forces fighting each other," Guterres said."We have more and more an external interference that undermines the possibility to a ceasefire and to a political solution."

More than a year of siege in the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher has forced some civilians to turn to animal skins for food as the country's war grinds on.El-Fasher is the last major holdout in the vast western Darfur region against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023.With the RSF's nearly 18-month siege cutting off humanitarian aid to the city -- home to 400,000 trapped civilians -- El-Fasher has run out of almost everything."After not eating for three days, three of my neighbours and I roasted cowhide," said Salah Abdallah, 47."Even then, it was difficult to get firewood to light a fire."Soup kitchens, until recently run by volunteers, have closed for lack of supplies.A civilian group documenting the civil war's abuses, the El-Fasher resistance committee, posted a video on social media on Wednesday showing rolls of animal skin sizzling on a small wood fire."The people of El-Facher are now eating cowhide to survive because there isn't even any animal fodder left," the committee wrote.Livestock feed, once used as a meal of last resort, has become scarce and exorbitantly priced.On X, a user who shared the video said they were "old skins" used to stave off hunger.Since August the RSF has stepped up its artillery and drone bombardments in an attempt to take the strategic city.In recent weeks the paramilitaries have seized control of several sectors of El-Fasher, and are wearing down the army's last strongholds bit by bit.After fleeing his Awlad Al-Rif neighbourhood in El-Fasher, which fell to the RSF in recent weeks, Salah Adam found refuge in a reception centre in the city's Daraja Oula quarter."My family left the city three months ago. I stayed behind to keep an eye on our home," the 28-year-old university student explained."In the first two days after the soup kitchens shut down, I shared one bowl of corn porridge without salt with another family," he said, adding that he had not eaten since Wednesday."I will leave the city, no matter the danger."According to satellite images analysed by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, the RSF have dug nearly 68 kilometres of earthwork embankments around the city. A corridor just three to four kilometres wide is the only exit.The war in Sudan was triggered by a power struggle between two former allies: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army commander and de facto ruler of Sudan since a 2021 coup, and General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the RSF.The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and pushed nearly 25 million into acute hunger.According to the United Nations, more than one million people have fled El-Fasher since the war began, accounting for 10 percent of all internally displaced people in the country.Among them is Ibrahim Osman, who now lives in Tawila, around 70 kilometres west of the city."I had decided not to leave it at all, despite the never-ending bombardment, but the fear of dying of hunger pushed me to leave," the 36-year-old said.The population of the city, once the region's largest, has decreased by about 62 percent, the UN's migration agency said.If El-Fasher falls to the RSF, the paramilitaries will have control of the entire Darfur region, where they have sought to establish a rival administration.The army holds the country's north, centre and east, while the RSF holds sway in the west and parts of the south.

Late-season flooding hits villages in Egypt's Nile DeltaEgypt blames Ethiopia's 'reckless unilateral' management of its grand damEthiopia rejects charge, says regulated water releases reduced impactIOM says about 1,200 Sudanese families displacedRising Nile waters inundated homes and fields in northern Egypt over the weekend, forcing residents to move by boat and intensifying a war of words between Cairo and Addis Ababa over whether Ethiopia's giant Nile dam has worsened seasonal floods.In the Nile Delta village of Dalhamo, in Menoufia Governorate, some 50 km northwest of Cairo, men paddled wooden boats through narrow lanes where water lapped at the walls of their homes."We lost everything," said fisherman Saied Gameel, standing knee-deep in his flooded house. "The water level is extremely high, much higher this year ... before it would rise for two days and then recede."The Nile has long been affected by seasonal flooding due to monsoon rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands that usually peaks in July and August. But this year a late-season surge has pushed north from Ethiopia, through Sudan, and into Egypt.In Sudan, the UN migration agency said floods in Bahri, Khartoum state, displaced about 1,200 families last week and destroyed homes, compounding an 18-month war that has crippled the country's response.Egypt's Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry has accused Ethiopia of "reckless unilateral" operation of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying sharp, unannounced swings in water releases after the dam's September 9 inauguration helped trigger a "man-made, late flood".It said, in a statement on October 3, that discharges jumped to about 485 million cubic metres on September 10 and as high as 780 million on September 27 before easing, straining Sudan's Roseires Dam and pushing excess water through to Egypt.Ethiopia, which sees the $5 billion dam as central to its development, rejected Cairo's claims, describing Egypt's statement as "malicious and riddled with numerous baseless claims".In a statement on October 4, its Water and Energy Ministry said regulated releases from the Blue Nile project had reduced flood impacts and that without it heavy rain "would have caused historic destruction in Sudan and Egypt".Ethiopia inaugurated the dam on September 9, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed saying it was built "to prosper, to electrify the entire region, and to change the history of black people", insisting it was "not to harm its brothers".The dam is designed to generate 5,150 megawatts of power and hold up to 74 billion cubic metres of water in its lake.Cairo bitterly opposed the dam from the start, arguing that it violated water treaties dating back to the early part of the last century and poses an existential threat.Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference on October 2 that authorities had anticipated higher-than-normal flows this month and warned that low-lying tracts in Menoufia and neighbouring Beheira, long encroached by informal building and farming on the river's floodplain, were at risk.Health teams were deployed to flooded areas over the weekend.Back in Dalhamo, Gameel said residents were still waiting for help."People were warned before the water rose, but there's nowhere else for anyone," he said. "When the water rises, everyone ends up staying on top of their houses."

Qatar Charity (QC) has launched an emergency relief intervention to aid thousands of affected families, powered by the generosity of donors in Qatar, and in swift response to the catastrophic floods that struck several Sudanese states.QC said Saturday that the initiative aims to deliver essential supplies and support to communities already burdened by the ongoing conflict. The response comes at a critical time, with the autumn season approaching and heightened risks of disease outbreaks. Qatar Charity plans to deliver emergency assistance to over 100,000 of Sudan’s most vulnerable flood victims across four states: Khartoum, White Nile, Al Jazirah, and River Nile. Water levels in the Nile, Blue Nile, and White Nile have risen to unprecedented heights, devastating homes and farmland and leaving thousands displaced and in urgent need of shelter and aid.Qatar Charity’s field teams in Sudan have begun assessing urgent needs in food, shelter, and health, with a focus on vulnerable groups, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, to help them recover from the initial shock and rebuild their lives.

Qatar has vehemently condemned the attack that targeted a mosque in El Fasher city in Sudan, which resulted in fatalities and injuries.In a statement Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the bombing a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, stressing Qatar's rejection of attacks on places of worship and the terrorising of civilians.The ministry reiterated Qatar's unwavering position in rejecting violence, terrorism, and criminal acts, regardless of motives or reasons.It extended Qatar's condolences to the families of the victims, and to the government and people of Sudan, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

As war rages on in Sudan, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) concluded Saturday its intellectual and cultural gathering on “Seeing Sudan” to shed light on the urgent crisis.Scholars and creatives used the safety of the diaspora to bring attention to the thousands dead and millions displaced, and offered a roadmap to post-war recovery that ensures the preservation of the country’s rich legacy of being a centre of knowledge and culture.Journalist and GU-Q practitioner-in-residence, Nesrine Malik, captured the essence of the gathering, saying: “The challenge has been to think not only about what the war in Sudan is, but what Sudan itself is.”“With the erasure of cultural memories, physical artifacts, and history, the only way to hold on to it has been through storytelling, narrative, music, literature, and art,” she said.Over the course of three days, conference participants highlighted how creativity and resistance are intertwined, collectively imagining a future based on reinvesting in education and cultural production, welcoming home displaced citizens, advancing scientific and industrial capacity, and drawing together politicians, civil society organisations, and grassroots movements to rebuild the country together.The packed opening of the “Sudan Retold” art exhibition and book launch at Alhosh Gallery poignantly depicted the complex relationship between a nation and its people, and highlighted the devastation of war.“Who is missing right now are the artists in this room, barely any of them are here, and I want to dedicate this moment to them,” said Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann, researcher at Peace Research Institute, and exhibition co-curator. “While their art can travel, the artists can’t, they are trapped.”By tapping into cultural narratives, the conference shed light on universal themes of love, belonging, and loss in a time of uncertainty.“War does not define our art,” said Yafil Mubarak, curator, and director of Dara Art Gallery in Khartoum. “Our mission is to investigate the modes of expression that spill out of our consciousness into the world.“Sudanese art is an essential part of the narrative of the country, we are stabilising this world that barely sees us,” he stated.Part of the GU-Q’s “Hiwaraat” conference series drawing attention to the most pressing topics, the event became an essential platform for Sudanese cultural solidarity during a critical moment in history.

The “Sudan Retold Edition 1½”, a compelling exploration of Sudanese cultural wealth and intellectual achievement, was launched Friday at Alhosh Gallery at The Pearl Island.The event featured a book launch and an accompanying art exhibition, immersing attendees in photography, paintings, and multimedia installations that bring Sudan’s creative stories into dialogue with themes of memory, space, and community.Curated by Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) Artist-in-Residence Khalid Albaih, alongside Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and Abdelrahiem (Rahiem) Shadad, the project invites audiences to engage with Sudanese narratives beyond dominant political or historical frameworks, opening a space for alternative voices, layered interpretations, and artistic testimony.The initiative is part of the “Seeing Sudan: Politics Through Art” conference, a three-day event that began on September 18 at the Four Seasons Doha.It also forms part of a long-term project, now more than a decade in the making, that unites Sudanese artists, writers, curators, and cultural workers responding to a country often reduced to a single narrative despite its diverse cultures, religions, languages, and histories.Edited by Albaih, Fuhrmann, and Suzi Mirghani, the second volume of “Sudan Retold” was developed amid Sudan’s fragile transitional period: from the revolution, to renewed repression, to the 2021 military coup.With many contributors now displaced by ongoing conflict, the work resonates across geographies, weaving fiction, personal memory, archival fragments, and visual storytelling.The curators noted that the book and exhibition “are not historical overviews. They are fragments, fictions, testimonies, and visual narratives. They draw on personal archives, oral histories, forgotten objects, and speculative figures – not to reconstruct a singular past, but to open space tor layered, plural understandings of Sudan”.Among the featured works is *The Khartoum School by Ayat R H Ahmed, highlighting the influential Sudanese modern art movement shaped by artists such as Ahmed Shibrain, Ibrahim El Salahi, and Kamala Ishag.El Salahi, who once studied art in London, fused Western influences with Sudanese traditions to create a distinctive style that redefined audiences’ perceptions of modern African art.Also showcased is *Echoes of the Studio: Faces from the Archive by Waleed Mohammad, which reimagines mid-20th-century Sudanese studio portraits and family photographs, offering a meditation on continuity, change, and loss across generations.Another installation revisits “The Neighbourhood Association”, a tradition dating back to 1990 in Khartoum’s Burri district, where women organised collective support for community events, embodying enduring practices of solidarity.The exhibition also features *An Ode from the Diaspora, a series of illustrated poems that narrate fictional conversations between Sudanese creatives wrestling with self-doubt on the eve of the 2019 revolution – an exploration of art’s power to inspire change.

Hami Nepal used Discord app to mobilize protestsSudan Gurung and team propose cabinet changes, focus on youth involvementA former DJ and his obscure Nepalese non-profit used a social media app popular with video gamers to drive massive protests and become the unlikely power brokers in installing the country's new interim leadership.Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of Hami Nepal (We are Nepal), used the Discord messaging app and Instagram to mobilise massive demonstrations that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign, in the deadliest political crisis to hit the Himalayan nation in decades, a dozen people involved in the demonstrations said. The group used VPNs to access banned platforms and issued calls to action that reached tens of thousands of young people, they added. Representatives for Oli could not be contacted for comment."I was invited to join a group on Discord where there were about 400 members. It asked us to join the protest march a few kilometres from the parliament," 18-year-old student Karan Kulung Rai, who is not part of the group, told Reuters.Hami Nepal's early social media posts on Discord became so influential that they were referenced on national television.As protests grew violent, the group also identified messages it termed "fake news" and shared hospital phone numbers.Hami Nepal members, who asked not to be identified as they had used proxy names online for security reasons, said Gurung and the group's other leaders have since become central to high-stakes decisions, including the appointment of the new interim leadership till elections are held on March 5. They have already convinced the country's president and army chief to appoint former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, known for her tough stance against corruption, as Nepal's first woman prime minister in an interim capacity, three members of the group said."I will make sure that the power lies with the people and bring every corrupt politician to justice," Gurung said in his first press conference since the protest on Thursday. On Sunday, Gurung and his team were in meetings to decide key cabinet positions and were proposing that some government officials appointed by the previous administration be removed, members of Hami Nepal said."Meetings are ongoing between Karki and members of the group. We will finalise the cabinet soon," one of the members said. Gurung and Karki did not immediately respond to questions sent to their mobile phones.The "process is being carefully carried out, so that it consists of skilled and capable youth," Hami Nepal said on Instagram.Monday's protest by young adults loosely categorised as a "Gen Z" movement, as most participants were in their 20s, turned deadly within hours and rapidly brought down the government. The protests were directed at perceived government corruption and took off following a ban on multiple social media platforms - a directive that was reversed. Protesters clashed with authorities on the streets, leaving at least 72 dead and over 1,300 injured.Gurung, who is older than the Gen Z age bracket, and his team have vowed not to take up any cabinet positions but want to be part of the future decision-making."We don't want to be politicians. Sudan Gurung was only helping the 'Gen Z' group and we are only the voice of the nation and not interested in taking leadership positions," said Ronesh Pradhan, a 26-year-old volunteer for the group. Gurung, who was a DJ before he founded Hami Nepal, organised civic relief when the worst earthquake in Nepal's history killed over 9,000 people in 2015, and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Team members running the Instagram account, whose followers have swelled to over 160,000, and Discord posts alongside Gurung include 24-year-old cafe owner Ojaswi Raj Thapa and law graduate Rehan Raj Dangal.Thapa, who quickly emerged as a vocal protest movement leader, told Reuters in an interview that the judiciary was not independent and ensuring its freedom was a key priority once the interim government was put in place."We may need some changes to the constitution but we don't want to dissolve the constitution," he said on Thursday.

The Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, a global education and development organisation, joins the international community in marking the United Nations International Day to Protect Education from Attack.This year’s observance comes amid a worsening global education crisis. As of early 2025, as many as 85mn children affected by wars, armed conflict, and emergencies are entirely out of school — a staggering rise from the 72mn reported in 2023.Among these children, 52% are girls, over 20% are children with disabilities (more than 17mn), and approximately 17% (15mn) are forcibly displaced, either as refugees or internally displaced persons.This educational catastrophe is not confined to a few regions — nearly half of all these out of school children are found in just five protracted crisis zones: Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan.The deliberate targeting and disruption of education systems, from bombing schools to displacing families, are not only violating children's rights but also inflicting enduring damage on societal stability.At the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the EAA Foundation and QatarDebate hosted a special Youth Hub dialogue in Geneva under the theme “Words Uniting Worlds: Action for Education.”The session opened with remarks by Maryam al-Attiyah, chairperson of the Qatar National Human Rights Committee, and Nada al-Nashif, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, alongside Patricia Danzi, a senior Swiss official.Moderated by Jennifer Vaughan, spokesperson for the UN Special Envoy for Syria, the dialogue featured youth advocates Noor al-Thani and Ahmad al-Naimi from QatarDebate, as well as Randa al-Dawoudi and Manveer Singh Sandhu from the EAA–OHCHR Youth Rights Academy.The discussion highlighted how young people worldwide are confronting the growing threats to education in conflict-affected contexts and calling for stronger global accountability to safeguard the right to learn.The EAA Foundation also unveiled “Reshaping Action”, a powerful multi-format exhibition that confronts the devastating impact of war on education. Through striking photojournalism, immersive installations, and reflective art, the exhibition highlighted the resilience of children and teachers striving to learn amid bombed schools in Gaza and Sudan, underground lessons in Ukraine, and makeshift classrooms in Rohingya refugee camps.More than a showcase of images, Reshaping Action served as a global call to defend the right to learn, urging leaders and the international community to #UniteToProtect education in times of crisis and to stand with the more than 222mn children worldwide whose futures are threatened by conflict and displacement.The UN International Day to Protect Education from Attack was established through a resolution spearheaded by Qatar and Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser at the United Nations General Assembly in 2020. Supported by 62 countries, the resolution declared September 9 as the UN International Day to Protect Education from Attack.

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) will hold “Seeing Sudan: Politics Through Art”, a landmark three-day conference from September 18-20 at Four Seasons Doha that promises not just to inform, but to transform the way the world views Sudan. “At a time when Sudan’s crisis risks invisibility, this conference amplifies Sudanese voices and highlights the transformative role of culture in sustaining resilience and hope,” said GU-Q dean Safwan M Masri. “The 50 leading scholars, artists, and activists speaking at the conference will show how art functions as politics by other means, with memory as its medium, imagination as its arena, and survival as its aim.” Anchoring the programme is the keynote panel “Eyes on Sudan”, featuring Zeinab Badawi, legendary broadcaster, president of SOAS University of London, and author of the bestselling book *An African History of Africa (2024). She will be joined by Khalid Albaih, internationally celebrated Sudanese political cartoonist and GU-Q’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence; Nesrine Malik, award-winning journalist and author whose writing has reshaped global understandings of politics and identity; and Rashid Diab, one of Sudan’s most influential contemporary artists. Together with Masri as moderator, they will ask urgent questions about Sudan’s past, present, and future, and challenge audiences to engage with a rich cultural legacy in peril. Beyond the keynote, attendees will experience live music by Alsarah of Alsarah & The Nubatones, and musician and composer Huda Asfour; attend a special art exhibition and book launch for *Sudan Retold at Alhosh Gallery; and engage in immersive discussions on art, film, music, and life in Sudan and the diaspora. The event extends beyond academic dialogue, offering participants the chance to engage with Sudan’s cultural heartbeat in the midst of crisis. As the GU-Q marks its 20th anniversary, “Seeing Sudan” exemplifies its aim to foster bold scholarship and dialogue that bridges cultures, honours diverse histories, and addresses the world’s most pressing challenges.

An armed group that controls part of western Sudan appealed Tuesday for foreign help in recovering bodies and rescuing residents from torrential rain, after it said at least 1,000 people were killed when a landslide buried a mountain village.Only one person survived the destruction of the village of Tarseen in the mountainous Jebel Marra area of the Darfur region, said the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.SLM/A, which has long controlled and governed an autonomous portion of Jebel Marra, appealed to the United Nations and international aid agencies to help collect the bodies of victims, including men, women and children."Tarseen, famed for its citrus production, has now been completely levelled to the ground," the group said in a statement. Continuing rains have made travel in the region difficult and could impede any rescue or aid efforts."Nearby villagers are overwhelmed with fear that a similar fate might befall them if the ... torrential rainfall persists, which underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive evacuation plan and provision of emergency shelter," the group's leader, Abdelwahid Mohamed Nur, said in a separate appeal.A statement by the UN's resident co-ordinator put the death toll at between 300 and 1,000, citing local reports.Arjimand Hussain, regional response manager for the development group Plan International, said the last 45km of the route to Tarseen were impassable to motor vehicles and could only be negotiated on foot or by donkey.Nine bodies were recovered by volunteers, said Abdelhafiz Ali from the Jebel Marra Emergency Room, who noted that the village had hosted hundreds of people displaced by fighting.The SLM/A has remained neutral in the battle between the main enemies in Sudan's civil war, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The two foes are fighting over control of Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, which is under siege from the RSF and has suffered famine.Residents of Al-Fashir and nearby areas have sought shelter in Jebel Marra, though food, shelter, and medical supplies are insufficient and hundreds of thousands have been exposed to the rains. Tawila, where most have arrived, is in the throes of a cholera outbreak, as are other parts of Darfur.The two-year civil war has left more than half of Sudan's population facing crisis levels of hunger and driven millions from their homes, leaving them especially exposed to the country's damaging annual floods.Sudan's army-controlled government expressed its condolences and willingness to assist.The prime minister of a newly-installed RSF-controlled rival government, Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi, said he would be co-ordinating with the SLM/A on the delivery of aid supplies to the area.Pope Leo sent his condolences and said he was praying for those affected, according to a Vatican statement.