Click to expand Image People pass through a destroyed section of Omdurman, Sudan on May 25, 2025. © 2025 Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images (Berlin) – Leaders meeting in Berlin on April 15, 2026, the three-year mark of ongoing conflict in Sudan, should commit to concrete, time-bound measures to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for serious international crimes to account, Human Rights Watch said today.Germany, the African Union, France, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States will meet in Berlin to address the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and their respective allies. In late February, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK formed a coalition to prevent atrocities and promote justice in Sudan. The Berlin conference provides an opportunity for wider participation in the coalition and these efforts“Yet another year in Sudan has been marred by widespread war crimes, massive displacement of civilians, and an ongoing flow of weapons into the hands of abusive warring factions,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The conference in Berlin should not be another box-ticking exercise, but instead finally galvanize international momentum to deter further atrocities, advance justice, and protect civilians, including local aid workers.”The conference takes place amid devastating fighting in the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state. Since January, the warring parties have made widespread use of explosive weapons in attacks on populated areas that have killed civilians and hit civilian infrastructure, including drone strikes. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) reported that on March 20, a Sudanese Armed Forces drone strike on a hospital in East Darfur killed 70 people, including 15 children. The organization said that on April 2, the RSF carried out a drone strike on a hospital in White Nile state, killing at least 10 people, including 7 medical staff. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in March that the use of drones in attacks in Sudan “underlines the devastating impact of high-tech and relatively cheap weapons in populated areas.”The RSF carried out a final onslaught on the North Darfur capital, El Fasher, in October 2025, following its 18-month siege of the city. A UN Fact-Finding Mission found that the manner in which the RSF carried out attacks on civilians in and around the city’s fall bore the “hallmarks of genocide.” Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed survivors who described a campaign of bombardment killing vast numbers of civilians, widespread massacres in and around the city, widespread arbitrary detentions including systematic abduction for ransom, and widespread rape. Despite repeated warnings by civil society about the risk of mass atrocities, other countries failed to act against the RSF leadership, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch also has documented that the Sudanese Armed Forces and affiliated forces arbitrarily arrested people, often appearing to target them based on their ethnicity, political background, or local aid work. Detainees were denied their rights to due process and often subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.The EU in particular, building on the Foreign Affairs Council conclusions adopted in October 2025, should put into effect recommendations to protect civilians and commit to join the atrocity prevention coalition. African Union member states should likewise move beyond statements and commit to coordinated diplomatic pressure, support for monitoring mechanisms, and sustained political engagement to protect civilians. The participating countries should also support the establishment of a mechanism to track and respond to international human rights and humanitarian law violations, including ongoing attacks on local aid workers, and provide political and financial backup for their vital work supporting the population, Human Rights Watch said. Countries, including through the newly formed atrocity prevention and justice coalition, should also take concrete steps to press for accountability. These include providing full support for the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing investigation in Darfur and pressing Sudan’s warring parties to provide unfettered access for independent monitors and investigators. Other countries should press Sudan to hand over Omar al-Bashir, the country’s former dictator, and others wanted by the ICC and work toward expanding the court’s jurisdiction to cover the whole country instead of just Darfur. The countries involved should also publicly call out the backers of the warring parties, including the UAE, and commit to concrete action to prevent ongoing support to abusive parties. They should enforce the existing UN arms embargo on Darfur and work at the UN Security Council to expand it to all of Sudan. “This conference should not have to be remembered as the first day of yet another year of atrocities against civilians in Sudan,” Osman said. “The participants should identify and implement the measures needed to change that, including coordinated strategic action to hold those responsible to account and robust efforts to protect civilians and open up civic space.”