UN mulls fact-finding mission to Sudan amid violence
The UN Human Rights Council is reviewing the situation in Al-Fashir in Sudan at an emergency meeting and is working on a potential fact-finding mission into reported mass killings in Darfur when the city fell to paramilitary forces.
The fact-finding mission included in the draft resolution will also seek to identify the perpetrators of violations allegedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies in Al-Fashir.
In his opening speech to delegates, the UN human rights chief called on the international community to take action.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “There was too much pageantry and performance, too little action. We must stand against this brutality, which is an example of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population.” he said.
RSF denied targeting civilians or blocking aid and said such activities were due to rogue actors.
Turk also called for action against individuals and companies “fueling and profiting” from the war in Sudan, and issued a stark warning about escalating violence in Kordofan, in Sudan’s central region, with bombardments, blockades and people being forced from their homes.
Kordofan is a region of three provinces that acts as a buffer between the RSF’s Darfur strongholds in the west and army-held provinces in the east.
The capture of al-Fashir by the RSF on October 26 consolidated its control over the Darfur region in a civil war with the Sudanese army that lasted more than 2.5 years.
The draft text, seen by Reuters and prepared for consideration by the council, strongly condemns the reported ethnically motivated killings by RSF and allied forces in Al Fashir and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, described examples of rape, killing and torture and said a comprehensive investigation was needed to reveal the full picture.
He said RSF forces “turned Al-Fasher University into a killing field” where thousands of civilians were sheltered.
Rishmawi said witnesses also saw bodies piled up in the streets and ditches dug in and around the city.
The proposed resolution falls short of mandating an investigation into the role of external actors who might support the RSF, which the ambassador of Sudan’s permanent mission in Geneva criticized, saying his country faced an “existential war” after the international community failed to act.
“We were warning the entire UN… calling for pressure on the rebel militia and the country sponsoring it with military equipment, namely the UAE,” Hassan Hamid Hassan said. he said.
The Sudanese military accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying arms to the RSF; This claim is one that UN experts and US politicians find credible.
UAE Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Jamal Al Musharakh, on Thursday categorically rejected allegations that he had provided any form of support to any of the warring parties.
The United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway and Ghana expressed their support for the decision, strongly condemning the violence in Sudan, which they warned could threaten regional stability.
The resolution also calls on the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to allow life-saving aid to reach many people who may still be stranded in the famine-hit city.
Women fleeing the city reported murders and systematic rapes, while others described civilians being shot in the streets and attacked by drone strikes.
