UN experts call for ‘impartial force’ to protect civilians in Sudan

United Nations-backed human rights experts have called for an “independent and impartial force” in Sudan and the widening of an arms embargo to protect civilians in the escalating conflict.

The warring parties had committed “harrowing human rights violations and international crimes, including many which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan said in its first report on Friday.

It urged that the force be deployed “without delay”, but did not specify who might participate.

The conflict that started in April last year pitting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has spread to 14 of 18 states, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions.

The mission’s 19-page report, based on 182 interviews with survivors, their family members and witnesses conducted between January and August 2024, said both the SAF and the RSF were responsible for attacks on civilians “through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment”.

The three-member team, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2023, found evidence of “indiscriminate” air attacks and shelling against civilian targets including schools and hospitals as well as water and electricity supplies.