(MENAFN) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urgently called for a halt to hostilities in and around El Fasher, Sudan, as fighting intensifies in North Darfur, his spokesperson announced Friday.

The UN leader expressed deep shock over the persistent assaults by the Rapid Support Forces targeting El Fasher, the region’s capital, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in an official statement.

"El Fasher has been under a tightening siege for more than 500 days with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the area," Dujarric emphasized.

Guterres voiced serious concern over the escalating risk of severe breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws, including ethnically driven abuses, the spokesperson added.

In recent weeks, relentless shelling has battered El Fasher, alongside repeated deadly attacks on the Abu Shouk displacement camp—where famine conditions were identified as far back as December 2024.

Since August 11, the United Nations has recorded at least 125 civilian deaths in the El Fasher area, including summary executions, with the actual number presumed higher, according to Dujarric.

Despite supplies being pre-positioned nearby, UN and partner efforts to deliver aid into El Fasher have been consistently obstructed. Attacks on humanitarian workers and assets in North Darfur have surged in recent months, he said.

The UN chief "insists that immediate steps must be taken to protect civilians and enable the safe, unhindered and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance into the area, and to allow any civilians seeking to leave the area voluntarily to do so safely," Dujarric concluded.

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