The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) has recently published a report outlining a multitude of human rights abuses allegedly carried out amidst the ongoing conflict in Sudan. The alleged violations include militia attacks targeting civilian-populated areas, the existence of mass graves, and critically, the systemic use of sexual violence.
The clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been ongoing since April 2023, a consequence of a collapsed political agreement between the two parties. The escalating turbulence has significantly worsened the existing humanitarian crisis in Sudan, a country already burdened with high poverty levels and food insecurity. According to the World Food Programme, numerous citizens lack proper access to basic necessities.
The UNHCR report implicates both the SAF and the RSF in perpetrating human rights abuses throughout the conflict. Highlights from the report include instances of public executions conducted by the SAF on presumed RSF members, and an RSF-led assault on a market resulting in the death of 15 civilians. The report also suggests that many of these attacks appear to be motivated by ethnic hostilities. Both factions stand accused of employing internationally prohibited heavy weapons in populated civilian areas.
The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for the immediate cease of hostilities and dialogues between the SAF and RSF. He commented, “This report makes for yet more painful reading on the tragedy being needlessly inflicted on the Sudanese people since April 2023, but also underlines once more the dire need to end the fighting and to break the cycle of impunity that gave rise to this conflict in the first place. The guns must be silenced, and civilians must be protected.”
For the creation of this extensive report, UN officials interviewed more than 300 individuals directly affected by the escalating violence.
The full report can be read at the original article.