The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution establishing an independent fact-finding mission to investigate reports of mass killings and other grave abuses in al-Fashir, the last major city in Darfur to fall to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in late October.
The text was adopted without a vote during an emergency special session in Geneva, signalling broad international consensus.
The mission will investigate and identify alleged perpetrators of atrocities committed by the RSF and allied groups, including reported ethnically motivated killings and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The United Kingdom’s ambassador in Geneva said the mission would help document and preserve evidence, laying the groundwork for future accountability efforts.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged states to halt what he described as unchecked brutality.
“There has been too much pretence and performance, and too little action,” he told delegates. “The international community must stand up against these atrocities, a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population.”
The RSF has denied deliberately targeting civilians or obstructing aid, blaming any abuses on rogue actors. But testimony presented to the Council pointed to systematic violence.
Mona Rishmawi of the U.N.’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan described extensive evidence of rape, torture and killing, including accounts that RSF forces had “turned Al Fasher University into a killing ground” where thousands of displaced civilians had sought shelter.
Witnesses reported bodies piling in streets and trenches being dug around the city.
The fall of al-Fashir on Oct. 26 cemented RSF control over much of Darfur in the 2½-year war with Sudan’s army.
Türk also warned of escalating violence in Kordofan, a strategic buffer region between RSF-held Darfur and army-controlled states in eastern Sudan, citing bombardments, blockades and mass displacement.
The resolution, while strongly condemning atrocities in al-Fashir, does not examine the role of external actors allegedly supporting the RSF, an omission criticized by Sudan’s representative Hassan Hamid Hassan, who accused the international community of ignoring his government’s repeated warnings.
He reiterated Sudan’s allegation that the United Arab Emirates is supplying weapons to the RSF, a claim U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have said appears credible. UAE ambassador Jamal Al Musharakh “categorically” denied providing any support to either side.
The United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway and Ghana expressed strong backing for the resolution, warning that continued violence threatens regional stability. The Council also called on both the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces to allow life-saving humanitarian aid into famine-stricken al-Fashir.
Women fleeing the city have reported systematic rape, drone strikes on civilian areas, and killings in the streets, underscoring the urgency for independent investigation and unfettered humanitarian access.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
