As the fighting expanded to new areas of the country, the comprehensive report issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted indiscriminate attacks launched by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces on densely populated areas during the fighting from the beginning of the conflict on 15 April until the end of 2023, Especially in the capital, Khartoum, Omdurman, Kordofan, and Darfur.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that the accounts coming out of Sudan for nearly a year are stories of “death, suffering and despair,” while war and human rights violations continue “with no end in sight.”
The tragedy of the Sudanese people
He added: “This report provides an extremely painful reading of the tragedy that has been needlessly inflicted on the Sudanese people since April 2023, and reaffirms the urgent need to end the fighting and break the cycle of impunity that led to this conflict in the first place. The guns in Sudan must be silenced and protection for civilians, and there is an urgent need to seriously resume comprehensive talks to restore civilian government in order to open the way forward.”
The report is based on interviews conducted by UNHCR with 303 victims and witnesses, including dozens of interviews conducted in Ethiopia and eastern Chad, as well as analysis of photographs, videos, satellite images and information from other open sources.
Child recruitment and sexual violence
The report shows that both sides of the conflict used explosive weapons with a wide-ranging effect in areas with high population density. He also revealed that by December 15, at least 118 people had been subjected to sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and attempted rape, including 19 children. The report states that many rapes were committed in homes and streets by individuals belonging to the Rapid Support Forces.
The report found that the RSF also recruited children from Arab tribes in Darfur and Kordofan, while African tribes, including the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, responded to recruitment campaigns launched by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
“Some of these violations may amount to war crimes,” Mr. Türk said. “There must be prompt, comprehensive, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law, and those responsible must be brought to justice.”
The High Commissioner also called on both parties to the conflict to ensure rapid and unhindered access to humanitarian aid in all areas under their control.
It is noteworthy that this week, the Commission on Human Rights verified a reliable video clip indicating that four students may have been beheaded by men wearing Sudanese Armed Forces uniforms in the city of El Obeid while they were traveling through North Kordofan State - as they were considered supporters of the Rapid Support Forces based on their presumed ethnic affiliation. The video, which was posted on social media on February 15, shows men dressed in army fatigues parading severed heads in the street and shouting ethnic insults.
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