The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Monday held Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies fully responsible for what he described as a “preventable human rights catastrophe” in El Fasher.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Türk said that after 18 months of siege, starvation and bombardment, the RSF unleashed intense violence in the city, resulting in thousands of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians.
Survivors reported mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence, torture, abductions for ransom and attacks on healthcare workers.
Türk said his office interviewed more than 140 victims and witnesses following his recent visit to Sudan and eastern Chad. Testimonies pointed to systematic sexual violence, the targeting of non-Arab ethnic groups, child recruitment and widespread detentions, with some civilians reportedly transferred to
prisons such as Tagris in South Darfur.
He also warned that similar violations could spread to Sudan’s Kordofan region, where fighting has intensified after the fall of El Fasher. His office documented about 90 civilian deaths and 142 injuries in just over two weeks from drone strikes by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Calling for urgent international action, Türk urged the extension of the Darfur arms embargo to the whole of Sudan, stronger civilian protection measures, an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure and greater support for local mediation initiatives.
He is scheduled to deliver a more detailed briefing on Sudan to the Human Rights Council on February 26. The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed thousands and displaced millions across the country.
