Mass killings and millions forced to flee for their lives have made Sudan the “epicentre of suffering in the world”, according to the UN’s humanitarian affairs chief.

About 12 million people are believed to have been displaced and at least 40,000 killed in the civil war – but aid groups say the true death toll could be far greater.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told Sky’s The World With Yalda Hakim the situation was “horrifying”.

“It’s utterly grim right now – it’s the epicentre of suffering in the world,” he said of Sudan.

The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – who were once allies – started in Khartoum in April 2023 but has spread across the country.

The fighting has inflicted almost unimaginable misery on a nation that was already suffering a humanitarian crisis.

Famine has been declared in some areas and Mr Fletcher said there was a “sense of rampant brutality and impunity” in the east African nation.

“I spoke to so many people who told me stories of mass executions, mass rape, sexual violence being weaponised as part of the conflict,” he said.

The fall of a key city

Last month, the RSF captured Al Fashir – the capital of North Darfur state – after a siege of more than 18 months.

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands forced to flee, according to the UN and aid groups.

The World Health Organisation said more than 450 people alone were reportedly killed at a maternity hospital in the city.

RSF fighters also went house to house to murder civilians and carried out sexual assault and rape, according to aid workers and displaced people.

The journey to escape Al Fashir goes through areas with no access to food, water or medical help – and Mr Fletcher said people had described to him the “horrors” of trying to make it out.

“One woman [was] carrying her dead neighbour’s malnourished child – and then she herself was attacked on the road as she fled towards Tawila,” he told Sky News.

Such is the violence in Al Fashir, blood from mass killings appears to stain the sand in satellite images from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, Mr Fletcher added.

“We’ve got to make sure there are teams going in to investigate these atrocities. Al Fashir is a crime scene right now,” he said.

“But we’ve also got to make sure we’ve got protection for civilians from the future atrocities.”

Children at the forefront of suffering

Mr Fletcher told Yalda Hakim that children had “borne the brunt” and made up one in five of those killed in Al Fashir.

He said a child he met “recoiled from me” and “flinched” when he gestured towards a Manchester City logo on his shirt when they were kicking a ball around.

“This is a six-year-old, so what has he seen and experienced to be that terrified of other people?” he asked.

He’s urging the international community to boost funding to help civilians, and a “much more vigorous, energised diplomacy” to try to end the fighting.

“This can’t be so complex, so difficult, that the world can’t fix it,” he told Sky News.

“And we’ve seen some momentum. We’ve seen the quad – Egypt, America, Saudi, the UAE just recently – getting more engaged.

“I’m in daily contact with them all, including the White House envoy, Dr Massad Boulos, but we need to sustain that diplomatic engagement and show the creativity and patience that’s needed.”

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Hopes of an imminent end to the violence currently look unlikely.

Sudan’s military leader, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, said on Friday that his forces would not stop until the RSF is wiped out.

“This war will not come to an end with a truce, but when rebels are destroyed,” he said – according to a statement from Sudan’s ruling council.

“We call on all Sudanese to join the fight, and for those who can carry weapons to come forward.”

The RSF and the Sudanese army have previously agreed to various ceasefire proposals during their two-and-a-half-year-old war, but none have succeeded.

The United Nations Security Council has passed a US resolution which endorses Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.

Russia, which had circulated a rival resolution, abstained along with China on the 13-0 vote.

The resolution endorses the US president’s 20-point ceasefire plan, which calls for a yet-to-be-established Board of Peace as a transitional authority that Mr Trump would head.

Read more: What does Trump’s Gaza peace plan look like?

US ambassador Mike Waltz said the resolution was “historic and constructive”, but it was “just the beginning”.

“Today’s resolution represents another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” he added.

The proposal gives no timeline or guarantee for an independent Palestinian state, only saying “the conditions may finally be in place” after advances in the reconstruction of Gaza and reforms of the Palestinian Authority – now governing parts of the West Bank.

It also says that the US “will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence”.

The language on statehood was strengthened after Arab nations and Palestinians pressured the US over nearly two weeks of negotiations, but it has also angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He has vowed to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state, and on Sunday pledged to demilitarise Gaza “the easy way or the hard way”.

Hamas: International force is ‘in favour of’ Israel

In a statement rejecting the resolutions’ passing, a Hamas spokesperson said that it “falls far short of the political and humanitarian demands and rights of our Palestinian people”.

“The effects and repercussions of this war continue to this day, despite the declared end of the war according to President Trump’s plan,” they added.

“The resolution imposes an international trusteeship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people, their forces, and factions reject.”

The spokesperson then said that “assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.

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The Palestinian Authority, however, issued a statement welcoming the resolution and said it is ready to take part in its implementation.

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Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death.

It comes after the 78-year-old was found guilty of ordering lethal force in a crackdown on a student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule.

The former leader, who is now exiled in India, was tried in absentia by the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) after the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in last year’s violence.

Bangladesh‘s health adviser in the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.

Following a months-long trial, Hasina got a life sentence under charges for crimes against humanity and the death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.

In a statement released after the verdict, Hasina said the ruling was “biased and politically motivated” and “neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters”.

“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she added.

“I wholly deny the accusations that have been made against me in the ICT. I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”

The students initially started protesting over the way government jobs were being allocated, but clashes with police and pro-government activists quickly escalated into violence.

The court revealed conversations of Hasina directing security officers to drop bombs from helicopters on the protesters.

She also permitted the use of lethal weapons, including shotguns at close range for maximum harm, the court was told.

Hasina, who previously called the tribunal a “kangaroo court”, fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising.

She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence.

Hasina is also the aunt of former UK government minister, Tulip Saddiq, who resigned from her Treasury job at the start of this year.

Ms Siddiq had faced calls to step down over links to her aunt and was also said to be facing a corruption trial in Bangladesh.

She told Sky News in August the accusations were “nothing more than a farce” and said she had never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.

The ICT, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital, delivered its four-hour verdict on Monday amid tight security.

The packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the sentence was read out.

The tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan – also exiled in India – to death.

A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.

The ruling is the most dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader since independence in 1971 and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in February.

Foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh have called on India to hand over the former prime minister, adding it was obligated to do so under an existing treaty between the two nations.

India’s foreign ministry said it had noted the verdict concerning Hasina and “remained committed” to the people of Bangladesh.

“We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” the ministry added in a statement.

During the verdict, protesters had gathered outside the former home-turned-museum of Hasina’s late father demanding the building be demolished.

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Police used batons and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country, while the interim government warned any attempt to create disorder will be “strictly” dealt with.

Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown in protest at the verdict.

The mood in the country had been described as tense ahead of Monday’s ruling.

At least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles were set on fire across Bangladesh during the past few days.

Local media said two people were killed in the arson attacks, according to the Associated Press.