United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk listens to a statement during the Human Rights Council Special Session on the situation El Fasher, Sudan, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. The special session discussed the situation in the city, which fell to the Rapid Support Forces in October after an 18-month siege. Photo by Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA
The United Nations Human Rights Council chief Volker Türk issued a warning about the bloodshed, rape and torture in El Fasher, a city in the southwest of Sudan.
Türk said the council has issued repeated warnings about the human rights violations in the city.
“Our wake-up calls were not heeded. Bloodstains on the ground in El Fasher have been photographed from space. The stain on the record of the international community is less visible, but no less damaging,” Türk said at an emergency meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.
The council is backing a fresh, independent investigation into the mass killings in the city. More than 150,000 people have been killed and about 12 million have been displaced, the BBC reported.
El Fasher suffered an 18-month siege and then was captured last month. The Sudanese Army ceded the entire Darfur region to the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Most of western Sudan is now controlled by the RSF.
The two factions have been battling for control of Sudan since April 2023.
“Sudan is built on the diversity of its people,” Türk said. “The war is setting regions and communities against each other, ripping apart the social fabric, with consequences that will reach down generations.
“I implore all parties to the conflict to put their country and its people first and to engage in meaningful peace negotiations, a humanitarian truce and a transition to inclusive civilian rule,” he said.
“I urge them to fulfil their obligations under international law to ensure the protection of civilians and the passage of humanitarian aid.”
Outside countries are accused of funding the bloodshed. The United Arab Emirates has been accused of supplying weapons to the RSF, and Iran has been accused of sending weapons to the Sudanese Army, BBC reported.
“The people of Sudan, particularly now in El Fasher, are facing a situation that I never saw before,” said Mona Rishmawi, a member of the U.N.’s fact-finding mission on Sudan, told the BBC. She said the scale of suffering is worse than it was 20 years ago with the Janjaweed genocide. The RSF and Janjaweed are related.
“[There have been] devastating mass killings, rape and torture, disappearances, missing people — and this comes against the background of 18 months of siege and starvation,” Rishmawi said.
Türk also warned of violence in Kordofan, Sudan, in the central part of the country.
“All the signs are there: bombardments; blockades; people forced from their homes; a despicable disregard for civilian lives. Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur,” he said.
“International law must not be shredded before our eyes,” Türk added. “The suffering of the Sudanese people must end.”
