U.N.-backed investigators say Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have carried out a campaign in the city of el-Fasher in the Darfur region that shows "hallmarks of genocide" against non-Arab communities. The fact-finding mission says the group inflicted mass killings and starvation-like siege conditions that targeted the Zaghawa and Fur people. U.N. officials say thousands of civilians were killed and many others disappeared after the city fell to the paramilitary forces in late October. The team's report describes executions, rape, torture, abductions and selective targeting of women and girls. It said the violence looks planned, not chaotic. It calls for accountability and stronger civilian protection as the war spreads.

The world's leading authority on hunger crises says famine has spread to two regions of war-torn Sudan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says famine is happening in el-Fasher, a major city in the Darfur region, and in Kadugli, a town in the South Kordofan province. Paramilitary forces rampaged through the besieged el-Fasher last week, reportedly killing hundreds of people. Sudan has been torn apart since April 2023 by a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The United Nations says more than 40,000 people have been killed, but aid groups believe the true number could be much higher.

The top U.N. human rights body has accused both the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces of detaining tens of thousands of people without charge since Sudan's civil war began in 2023. Some of those prisoners have now been released, among them detainees from neighboring South Sudan. While they are relieved to have escaped the horrific conditions of their imprisonment, they face a long and likely circuitous journey home, trying to get back to South Sudan through a region riddled with conflict.

Israel is in talks with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the war-torn East African country. It appears to be part of a wider effort by Israel to facilitate mass emigration from the territory left in ruins by Israel's 22-month offensive against Hamas. Six people familiar with the matter confirmed the talks to The Associated Press. It's unclear how far the talks have advanced, but the plans, if implemented, would amount to transferring people from one war-ravaged land at risk of famine to another, and raise human rights concerns. Israel has floated similar resettlement proposals with other African nations, including Sudan and Somalia.

The U.N. migration agency tells The Associated Press that the number of internally displaced people in Sudan has reached more than 10 million as war drives many from their homes. The total number of refugees and internally displaced means that more than a quarter of Sudan's population of 47 million has fled. More than 2 million people have been driven abroad, mostly to neighboring Chad, South Sudan and Egypt. Sudan's conflict between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began last year. More than 14,000 people have been killed and the surviving population is near famine.

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years has reached South Sudan, a country where ro…