UN rights council orders probe of ‘appalling’ abuses in Sudan’s el-Fasher

 

The United Nations’s top human rights body has ordered a probe into abuses in Sudan’s el-Fasher, where mass killings have been reported since the city fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

 During a special session in Geneva on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution ordering the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to urgently investigate violations in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

The resolution also called on the investigative team to “identify, where possible,” suspected perpetrators in an effort to ensure they are “held accountable”.

 The move comes weeks after the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, took full control of el-Fasher on October 26 after an 18-month siege on the city.

 Nearly 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF’s takeover, with displaced Sudanese civilians saying they faced indiscriminate attacks and sexual violence, among other abuses.  Numerous individuals claimed to have observed bodies lining the streets. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the council on Friday that the “atrocities that are unfolding in el-Fasher were foreseen and preventable” and “constitute the gravest of crimes”.

 He said the UN had warned that the fall of el-Fasher “would result in a bloodbath”.

 Turk stated, "So none of us should be surprised by reports that since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, there have been mass killings of civilians, ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence including gang rape, abductions for ransom, widespread arbitrary detentions, attacks on health facilities, medical staff, and humanitarian workers, and other appalling atrocities." These atrocities include abductions for ransom, abductions for ransom, and other atrocities.

“The international community has a clear duty to act.  There has been too much pretence and performance and too little action.  It must stand up against these atrocities, a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population.”