El-fasher: UN rights chief Volker Turk on Friday warned of escalating atrocities in and around El-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, urging the international community to take 'immediate and decisive action' to protect civilians trapped by months of fighting. Addressing the 38th Special Session of the Human Rights Council on Sudan, Turk highlighted the severe violence in the city, detailing mounting evidence of mass starvation, sexual violence, targeted killings, and the destruction of essential services.
According to Anadolu Agency, Turk reported the documentation of patterns of strangulation, starvation, mass killings, and widespread sexual violence, along with forced displacement. He described the dire situation where civilians have been reduced to eating leaves, animal feed, and peanut shells to survive, with entire communities being starved to death as armed groups encircle and terrorize the city.
Turk accused the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of deliberately obstructing humanitarian access and attacking medical facilities, humanitarian workers, and vital infrastructure. He cited satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts that suggest a 'deliberate campaign of cruelty designed to subjugate and control civilians.'
Calling the situation 'a display of naked brutality,' Turk urged UN member states to ensure immediate humanitarian access, impose targeted measures on individuals and networks financing or enabling the violence, and push for an urgent cessation of hostilities. He emphasized that the international community has been issuing statements for too long without taking sufficient concrete action.
UN Special Adviser Adama Dieng also warned of a 'human rights and humanitarian catastrophe' in Sudan due to the ongoing conflict between SAF and RSF forces, which has forced millions to flee their homes. Dieng noted that communities have suffered from summary executions, torture, abductions, sexual violence, and deliberate attacks on aid workers. He cautioned that rising hate speech and ethnically motivated violence risk escalating the conflict into even more serious atrocity crimes.
Dieng stressed that civilians in several areas are without access to water, food, or healthcare, equating the denial of these basic services to killing without firing a bullet. He called for the protection of civilians, the restoration of basic services, unrestricted humanitarian access, and inclusive political dialogue in line with the African Union's "Silencing the Guns" initiative.
The bloody conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions of people.