The UN human rights chief on Friday condemned “appalling violations and abuses” committed by Sudan’s warring army and paramilitaries. The situation in the country will be discussed during the 55th UN Human Rights Council, which begins this Monday in Geneva, a few days after the publication of a UN report documenting abuses committed by the two belligerents.
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This new United Nations report reveals that both camps “ carried out indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas » between the months of April and December 2023. Some displaced sites have even been affected, adds the report, notably in the capital Khartoum, but also in Kordofan, in the south, and in Darfur, in the west.
Among the abuses affecting civilians, the report identifies numerous cases of sexual violence: at least 118, sometimes with children among the victims. Already in November, a group of UN experts had warned of widespread sexual violence used as “ an instrument of war “.
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The report also provides credible evidence of a massacre committed against students by the regular army in North Kordofan State. Several men were reportedly beheaded there by soldiers because of their ethnicity.
For Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “ some of these violations would amount to war crimes “. He calls for an investigation. rapid, thorough, transparent, independent and impartial “.
Since April 15, the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo and the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have clashed in Khartoum, but also in the west and south of the country. A conflict which left several thousand dead and displaced nearly eight million peopleaccording to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The country is on the verge of the collapse » after more than ten months of war, underlines Eddie Rowe, director of the World Food Program (WFP) in Sudan. According to him, ” less than 5% » of the 48 million inhabitants « can afford a full meal “.
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