GENEVA: Both parties in Sudan’s civil war have carried out abuses on a large level which may amount to war crimes against humanity, a UN-mandated mission stated on Friday, suggesting an arms embargo and a peacekeeping force to protect civilian population.
The 19-page report by a UN Fact-Finding Mission, based on around 182 interviews with victims and survivors, their family members and witnesses, stated that both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were responsible for assaults on civilians and had used torture and carried out arbitrary arrests. “The gravity of these findings underlines the urgent and immediate acts to secure civilians,” said the mission’s chair Mohamed Chande Othman, calling for an impartial force to be deployed without any delay.
The latest report is the three-member mission’s first since its creation in October 2023 by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Civilian people in Sudan are facing worsening scarcity, mass displacement and disease following 17 months of war between the RSF paramilitary and the army. US-led mediators stated last month that they had also secured guarantees from both sides at talks in Switzerland to improve access for humanitarian aid.
