UN experts say peacekeepers needed to end ‘dire’ abuses in Sudan | Sudan

UN experts said on Friday that peacekeepers should be immediately deployed to Sudan and the existing international arms embargo should be extended to protect civilians from “appalling” human rights violations committed by warring parties in the country’s civil war.

Sudan’s military (SAF) and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have raped and assaulted civilians, tortured them and arbitrarily arrested them, according to a UN-mandated fact-finding mission based on 182 interviews with survivors, relatives and witnesses. The violations “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the report said.

The independent experts said they also found evidence of “indiscriminate” airstrikes and shelling on civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and water and electricity supplies.

“The gravity of our findings and the failure of the warring parties to protect civilians underscores the need for urgent and immediate intervention,” UN fact-finding mission chairman Mohamed Chande Othman told reporters.

The mission also called for an extension of the existing UN arms embargo, which applies only to the western region of Darfur, where thousands of ethnic killings have been reported.

“It is imperative that an independent and impartial force is deployed without delay with a mandate to protect civilians,” Othman said, adding that there are several options, including a UN-mandated force or a regional force backed by the African Union.

The latest allegations come on top of previous accusations that the RSF and its allies are responsible for a series of massacres and ethnic cleansing in West Darfur and Al Jazirah state, killing between 10,000 and 15,000 people.

Mission member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said anonymous support groups had received reports of more than 400 rapes in the first year of the war, but the true number was likely much higher. “The rare brutality of this war will have a devastating and long-lasting psychological impact on children,” she said.

The fact-finding team said it had tried to contact Sudanese government authorities several times as part of its work, but had received no response. It said the RSF had asked to cooperate with the mission, without going into details.

The Guardian has asked the Sudanese embassy in London for comment.

The report, based on interviews with survivors, witnesses and other sources now in Chad, Kenya and Uganda, came after two weeks of inconclusive US-brokered peace efforts in Geneva. The talks were attended by the RSF but not the SAF.

Little progress was made during the talks on the cessation of hostilities, although a mechanism called Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan was announced. This mechanism aims to expand access to humanitarian routes.

Observers have warned in recent weeks about the worsening hunger situation in Sudan.

Maximo Torero, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN agency, said on Thursday: “The conflict continues to lead to a rapid deterioration in food security, with an estimated 26% more people facing high levels of acute food insecurity during the June-September period compared to June last year, leaving 25.6 million people classified as in crisis or worse.”

The war began in April last year, when the national army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan faced the RSF, led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – also known as Hemedti.

The fighting began in the capital Khartoum but has since spread to 14 of the country’s 18 states. Thousands of people have been killed, 8 million have been internally displaced and another 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report