While the world looks on in shock at the wave of torture, rape, and savagery unfolding in Sudan, the United Nations has warned that the situation is only escalating. The sickening satellite images — of blood pooling on the sand from the mass executions in El Fasher — are just the orbit’s view of the still-unfolding crisis. While a trickle of people have made it to safety over the last two weeks, tens of thousands are still trapped in the brutal nightmare that no one can wake up from.

In the words of U.N. Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher, the area has reached “catastrophic levels of human suffering,” descending, he says somberly, “into an even darker hell.” Of the quarter million people who lived in El Fasher before the Rapid Special Forces (RSF) broke down the walls and stormed the city held by the Sudanese military, no one knows how many are dead.

After 17 months of trying to defend this last Darfur stronghold, the country's troops were finally overpowered, opening the door to a slaughter with chilling similarities to Hamas’s October 7. “Traumatized civilians are still [captive] inside el-Fasher and are being prevented from leaving,” U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk emphasized within the last few days. “I fear that the abominable atrocities … are continuing within the city,” he shook his head. “And for those who manage to flee, the violence does not end, as the exit routes themselves have been the scenes of unimaginable cruelty.”

In some of the most graphic footage uploaded to social media, a man named the “Butcher of El Fasher” live-streamed himself murdering civilians who begged for mercy. “I wanted to kill 2,000,” he reportedly says on the since-removed TikTok account, “but I’m sure the number exceeded 2,000, but I got confused about the calculation.” According to the BBC, he smiles as he guns down men at point-blank range. In another clip, locals cower in a row before they’re shot. Survivors say they watched in horror as RSF fighters massacred people and then ran over them with trucks. “They were killed without mercy,” a young man named Ahmed told reporters with a haunted look in his eye.

At the refugee camp in Tawila, the nearest place of refuge, humanitarian workers are stunned by the tens of thousands who are still missing, two weeks later. “The number of people who made it to Tawila is very small,” one member of the Norwegian Refugee Council says with growing alarm. The situation is so dangerous that most had to crawl on their stomachs and elbows across the desert “in constant terror of being caught” by RSF fighters. They’re crossing those 40 miles in the middle of the night, as gunmen “rove around, robbing people, taking them hostage, and in some cases slaughtering them by the dozen,” international aid workers explain.

Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, one of the experts studying the disturbing high-res satellite images over the past several days, believes that “tens of thousands of people had been killed after RSF fighters took the city around two weeks ago.” Now, looking at what he believes are mass graves and evidence of the dead being burned by the fighters, “Body disposal operations have picked up pace.”

“We left el-Fasher four days ago,” one survivor told the BBC. “The suffering we encountered on the way was unimaginable. The scenes were extremely brutal. We saw people murdered in front of us. We were divided into groups and beaten. It was really terrible.” As another woman ran, all she could see were corpses. “We saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn’t carry them.” Others weep at the thought of the young girls who’ve been gang-raped and kidnapped along the route. “Men and boys were also subjected to sexualized torture,” aid workers are quick to point out.

Traumatized, starving, and wracked with injuries, “Most of the new arrivals are elders and women or children,” a medic says. “The wounded are suffering, and some of them already have amputations.” He worries about what will become of those outside of Tawila’s reach. “People are in a critical state,” he pleaded. “They can’t move, speak, or seek help.”

Last Thursday, there’d been some hope of a ceasefire after pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., and Egypt. And while the RSF seemed, at least publicly, to consider the deal, the Sudanese military, which has been locked in this latest chapter of civil war since 2023, wants the paramilitary group to give up its weapons and leave the country’s civilian areas first — a condition that will be difficult to extract. Even now, the U.N.’s Volker Turk emphasized, “There is no sign of de-escalation. Developments on the ground indicate clear preparations for intensified hostilities.”

That was obvious in the hours after negotiations, as the violence started seeping into another major city, el-Obeid. Thanks to the high-tech warfare that U.A.E. is funneling to the monsters of the RSF — a bitter irony considering their role in the peace process — drone strikes are killing dozens of helpless locals. Forty mourners were murdered by rockets at a funeral just last week as fears spread that the offensive was widening.  As if to prove that point, explosions reverberated across Khartoum less than 24 hours after the fighters signaled their openness to negotiations.

According to U.S. intelligence, “[T]he United Arab Emirates sent increasing supplies of weapons including sophisticated Chinese drones to a major Sudanese militia this year, bolstering a group that has been accused of genocide and pouring fuel on a conflict that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.” The Wall Street Journal points out that the Emiratis’ involvement, “has frustrated U.S. officials hoping to contain the war. The latest round of talks hosted by the U.S. to arrange a cease-fire ended Friday in failure.”

Frankly, “The war would be over if not for the U.A.E.,” vented Cameron Hudson, a former chief of staff to successive U.S. presidential special envoys for Sudan. “The only thing that is keeping them in this war is the overwhelming amount of military support that they’re receiving from the U.A.E.,” he said of the RSF.

Raymond could only shake his head in disgust at the carnage the partnership has created. “A group that 20 years ago had rusty Enfield rifles, AK-47s, camels and horses now has an air force that can strike anywhere in Sudan within about three hours,” Raymond warned. “We see continued killing activity near the berm,” he said. “That’s consistent with reports that people trying to flee are being killed or being gathered together and shot in trenches.”

In Congress, both chambers have wrestled with ways to stop the bloodbath. Earlier this year, Democrats offered a bill to block the sale of weapons to U.A.E. until they walk away from their support of the militia. “If we really wanted to, the United States could end the horrific civil war in Sudan. Instead, we’re continuing to sell weapons to the UAE, that in turn arms the RSF and fuels their genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) argued. Over in the Senate, James Risch (R-Idaho) is leading a bipartisan group in calling on President Trump to designate RSF a foreign terror organization.

At this point, anything Washington does to intervene would be welcomed. For now, the call for the church to pray has never been more urgent. As U.N. relief chief Tom Fletcher lamented, “We cannot hear the screams, but — as we sit here today — the horror is continuing.”