Photograph: The Masalit community in London protest in 2022. (Flickr/Alisdare Hickson)

A senior United Nations official has issued a grave warning on the deteriorating crisis in Sudan, stating that the risk of genocide remains “very high” as ethnically targeted violence continues to escalate.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Virginia Gamba, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Acting Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, expressed deep concern over ongoing atrocities committed by both warring factions in Sudan.

“Both parties have committed serious human rights violations,” Gamba told the Council, specifically drawing attention to “continued and targeted attacks against certain ethnic groups, particularly in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.” She warned that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied Arab militias “continue to conduct ethnically motivated attacks against the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur groups.”

The RSF, originally formed from the Janjaweed militias, has been widely accused of mass killings and sexual violence since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti.

The war has devastated Sudan, killing tens of thousands, displacing 13 million people, including 4 million forced to flee abroad, and plunging the country into what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Gamba’s warning follows a wave of deadly violence over the weekend in West Kordofan, where more than 40 people, including children and medical personnel, were killed in a strike on Al-Mujlad Hospital. The hospital, located near the frontlines, was hit during ongoing clashes, with the RSF accusing the army of launching the attack. The army has yet to respond to the allegation.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, condemned the bombing, calling it “another appalling attack” and urging an immediate end to violence against healthcare infrastructure. “We cannot say this louder — attacks on health must stop everywhere!” he wrote on social media.

The conflict has also drawn international legal attention. Last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed a genocide case filed by Sudan against the United Arab Emirates, which had been accused of supporting the RSF. The court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.