As has been so often the case in 2025, the news from both Sudan and South Sudan is grim. The fall of El Fasher, largest city in Sudan’s Darfur region, to the Rapid Support Forces triggered massacres of up to 2000 civilians, including 400 in the only operating hospital. Those who could have been fleeing 35 miles west to Tawila where Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Norwegian Refugee Council are providing assistance. Videos of a gleeful commander boasting of his killings will be part of evidence collected for war crimes. NBC reported November 6 that the RSF agreed to a truce “to address the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the war,” as demanded by the U.S. and other mediators. There has been no SAF response as of the time of writing.
In South Sudan, where the trial of former Vice President Riek Machar and associates continues fitfully, the government has demanded that UNMISS, the UN peace force, reduce its forces by 70 percent, halt intelligence collection flights, and close displaced persons camps. That suggests efforts to eliminate a counterforce to more widespread violence by the South Sudan Peoples Defense Force, the renamed SPLA. The departing Petroleum Undersecretary reports that the Sudan Armed Forces has informed Juba that a “safe shutdown” of the pipeline for its oil exports should be effected because of drone attacks in Sudan on the pipeline.
AFRECS rejoiced in the visit last month by Bishop Thomas Tut Gany of Ayod. The leading Nuer bishop in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Bishop Tut held meetings with the Episcopal Bishops of Washington DC, New York, and Nebraska and formed partnerships with St. Thomas Episcopal Church of McLean, VA and others. Several AFRECS Board members and AFRECS Advisory Council convener Russ Randle had fruitful conversations with the bishop about future activities.