(Geneva) UN investigators said they had documented “worrying patterns” of serious abuses in Sudan after meeting with victims of violence in Chad’s 15-month-old civil war in the northeast African country.
The newly established UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan said it spent three weeks in Chad meeting with survivors of the conflict in Sudan, members of Sudanese civil society and other observers.
Their interlocutors provided accounts of “horrific acts of murder, sexual violence, including gang rape,” the investigation team said in a statement. “These brutal acts must stop and the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said Mona Rishmawi, a member of the mission.
The fact-finding mission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in late 2023 to investigate alleged abuses in the conflict but which does not speak on behalf of the UN, also described “arbitrary detentions, acts of torture [et] “forced disappearances”.
She also heard about “looting, burning of houses and the use of child soldiers.”
Many violations appear to target certain socio-professional groups in particular: lawyers, human rights defenders, teachers, doctors, in particular.
Sudan has been embroiled in a war since April 2023 between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. Both sides have been accused of war crimes for deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.
The war has left tens of thousands dead and more than ten million displaced, while two million people have fled the country, according to the UN; it has ravaged infrastructure and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
More than 600,000 people have left for neighbouring Chad.
Independent experts urgently need to step up efforts to end the conflict. “This crisis requires the support of the international community as a whole,” said mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman.