UN HRC Forms a Fact-finding Mission to Investigate Abuses in El Fasher

Sudanhorizon – Agencies

The UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday to establish a mission to investigate abuses committed in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, which was seized by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the end of October. The Council instructed the investigators to identify all those involved in the suspected atrocities committed in El Fasher to help bring them to justice.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that Sudan is embroiled in a proxy war being fought for control of its natural resources, warning that the atrocities in El Fasher represent the most serious crimes that could have been prevented. He added in a statement on Friday that the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher was followed by ethnically motivated executions, mass rapes, abductions, arbitrary arrests, and repeated attacks on medical facilities, describing the situation as “shocking atrocities.”

Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan, described examples of rape, murder, and torture, and said a thorough investigation was needed to get a complete picture. She said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had “turned El Fasher University into a killing field” where thousands of civilians had sought refuge. She added that witnesses also reported seeing bodies piled up in the streets and in trenches dug in and around the city.

However, the draft resolution does not include a mandate to investigate the role of external parties that may be supporting the militia, a point criticized by Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva, Hassan Hamid Hassan, who said his country was facing a “war of destiny” after the international community failed to act. Women who fled the city reported systematic killings and rapes, while others spoke of civilians being shot in the streets and attacked by marchers.

Britain, the European Union, Norway, and Ghana expressed their support for the resolution, strongly condemning the violence in Sudan and warning that it could threaten regional stability. On October 26, the Rapid Support Forces seized El Fasher and committed massacres against civilians, according to local and international organizations, amid warnings of a further geographical division of the country.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a military conflict between the army and the militia Rapid Support Forces, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands and the displacement of approximately 13 million people, in addition to exacerbating a humanitarian crisis described as one of the worst in the world.

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