Three years after war broke out in Sudan, the European Union has urged the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to negotiate an immediate and lasting ceasefire, warning against any unilateral move to set up “parallel governance” in the country.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and affiliated militias, has continued since it began three years ago, according to the EU’s statement issued on behalf of High Representative Kaja Kallas.
The EU said it remained committed to Sudan’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and said attempts to establish parallel governing structures could risk the country’s partition.
It also stressed preventing the conflict from escalating into a full-scale regional war remained “paramount”.
A Sudan Conference in Berlin on 15 April 2026 showed international determination to pressure the warring parties to end the conflict.
The EU said it was ready to back “any credible, unified peace initiative”, including options to support an international monitoring mechanism.
It called on “external actors” to stop fuelling the war and said it advocated expanding the mandates of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations arms embargo to the whole country — measures that are currently limited to the Darfur region
Humanitarian crisis and accountability
Civilians are being targeted, famine conditions persist and displacement continues to destabilise communities in Sudan and the wider region, the EU said.
Attacks on civilians, healthcare, aid workers, humanitarian convoys and civilian infrastructure “must stop”, it added, calling for unimpeded, safe and sustained humanitarian access across Sudan.
Obstruction of relief efforts and attacks on humanitarian personnel “may constitute war crimes”, the EU said.
International donors pledged €1.5 billion in aid at the Berlin conference, including €812 million from the EU and its member states.
Grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law are continuing, including “systematic” sexual and gender-based violence, with rape used as a weapon of war, the EU declared.
It said it supported the work of the UN Fact-Finding Mission and the ICC, and backed accountability for perpetrators, adding that it would use diplomacy and “restrictive measures” — including examining additional sanctions aimed at the “war economy”.
Civilian actors from Sudan met at the Berlin conference at the invitation of an AU-led “Quintet” — the African Union, United Nations, European Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and League of Arab States — and agreed on a Joint Call to End the War and advance a Sudanese-owned political process.
