UN Report: Warring Parties in Sudan Committed War Crimes

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan stated that both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed atrocities that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution and extermination, deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict that has raged since mid-April 2023.

A report titled “A War of Atrocities”, presented by the mission to the UN Human Rights Council, revealed that both sides carried out large-scale attacks on civilians and systematically destroyed essential life-sustaining infrastructure, including markets, hospitals, water and food networks, and displacement camps.

The mission concluded that the RSF committed crimes against humanity, particularly killings, torture, forced displacement, and persecution on ethnic grounds, as well as other inhumane acts during its siege of El Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

The report highlighted that the siege of El Fasher witnessed grave violations by the RSF and its allies, including killings, torture, rape, sexual violence, forced displacement, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

The mission’s chair, Mohamed Chande Othman, stressed that the investigation’s findings leave no doubt that civilians are paying the heaviest price in this war.

He added that the systematic targeting of civilians is not incidental but a deliberate strategy, noting that the Sudanese army is also implicated in violations against civilians, including killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture on ethnic and political grounds.