A UN fact-finding mission’s request for the deployment of an international force to shield civilians from the ongoing civil war in Sudan has been turned down by the sudanese armed forces.
The UN mission revealed that the warring parties in Sudan had violated civilians’ human rights in “harrowing” ways. Since the fight between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023, thousands of people have died and almost eight million have been displaced.
After working together to plot a coup, the two had a falling out that caused Sudan to enter a civil war.
The head of the UN mission, Chande Othman, stated, “Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay.”
An arms embargo on all parties to the war was also recommended by the fact-finding mission.
After gathering firsthand accounts from 182 survivors, relatives, and eyewitnesses, it released its conclusions.
While Saudi Arabia is rumored to have tight relations to the Sudanese government, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is suspected of providing financial and military support to the RSF, which it denies.
According to Sudan’s foreign ministry, the government has “entirety” rejected the fact-finding mission’s recommendations.
The suggestions of the team were seen to be “a flagrant violation of their mandate” and the UN Human Rights Council was characterized as “a political and illegal body”.
On the proposal, the RSF has not yet provided response
According to the AFP news agency, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the international community to “wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through.”
Speaking on a visit to Port Sudan, the government’s new headquarters after it was forced out of the capital, Khartoum, by the RSF, was Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict and respond to the suffering it is causing,” Dr Tedros was quoted as saying.
One of the worst-affected sections of the conflict, Darfur, has over 500,000 internally displaced people living in a camp close to the besieged city of El-Fasher. In August, a UN-backed committee of experts declared a famine there.
The US and Saudi Arabia have mediated the dispute several times, but to no avail.