The United Nations secretary-general has called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan’s Darfur region after a deadly drone attack on Friday killed more than 70 worshippers in el-Fasher, expressing “grave” alarm about the “rapidly deteriorating situation”.

“The fighting must stop now,” Antonio Guterres said in a statement issued by his spokesperson on Saturday, urging the warring parties to engage in dialogue and provide humanitarian corridors, with the brutal civil war wracking the nation in its third year.

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“The parties must return to the negotiating table and find a sustainable solution to the conflict,” he added.

El-Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur region, remains the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies’ last major stronghold across Darfur. It has been under siege for more than a year by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which launched a renewed offensive to capture the city in recent weeks.

Humanitarian organisations have raised alarm about growing hunger in the city as hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped without access to food, medicine and other essentials.

The UN has said the humanitarian situation in Sudan, where thousands have been killed, and millions displaced across the country, is the worst in the world. SAF has been fighting the RSF since 2023 in a war that has devastated the country.

Many who have left the city have reported being attacked by the RSF while making the journey to nearby refugee camps. In late August, UNICEF estimated that an estimated 600,000 people had been displaced from el-Fasher.

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On Friday, a drone attack killed more than 70 worshippers, including children, during dawn prayers at a mosque. The army blamed the RSF for what it called a “horrific crime” against people praying at Al-Safiya Mosque, putting the death toll at 75, with many more displaced.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Sudan’s capital Khartoum, said it was one of the “bloodiest days in the city since the RSF started its siege in May last year”.

“As a result of the repeated strikes by the RSF, civilian facilities have been hit, such as hospitals, schools, and displacement centres,” she said.

Sudan’s prime minister, Kamil Idris, said he would raise the situation in el-Fasher at the UN General Assembly, as world leaders gather in New York for its 80th session.

The attack also reportedly hit a UNICEF-supported water truck. Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, demanded protection for children, while the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA condemned the attack as “unacceptable” and called for respect for international humanitarian law and aid worker safety.

The chairperson of the African Union, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, also condemned what he called a “heinous drone strike”, calling it a flagrant violation of international law.

The attack came as the UN released a report which said summary executions, the targeting of civilians and ethnic violence were worsening across Sudan and particularly the Darfur region.

“Several trends remained consistent during the first half of 2025: a continued pervasiveness of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and the widespread use of retaliatory violence against civilians, particularly on an ethnic basis, targeting individuals accused of ‘collaboration’ with opposing parties,” the report said.

The report said 3,384 civilians had been killed in the first half of this year, warning that the death toll was likely higher due to difficulties in obtaining reliable information on the ground.

At the end of August, UNICEF said it had reported 1,100 grave violations in el-Fasher, and the maiming of more than 1,000 children, while others were abducted or recruited to armed groups.

In July this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) briefed the UN Security Council that it believed war crimes and crimes against humanity were being committed in Darfur.

“Rape and sexual violence are being weaponised. Abductions for ransom or to bolster the ranks of armed groups have become common practice,” Nazhat Shameem Khan, a prosecutor for the ICC, said.

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“And yet we should not be under any illusion,” she added, “things can still get worse.”