GENEVA – The United Nations Human Rights Council took decisive action on Friday, ordering an immediate investigation into alleged war crimes and atrocities in the Sudanese city of al-Fashir, a move aimed at piercing a veil of impunity shrouding the conflict.
At a special session convened to address the escalating crisis, the UN’s top rights body adopted a resolution that tasks its Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan with urgently probing violations in the Darfur city. The resolution explicitly mandates the investigators to “identify, where possible” individuals suspected of perpetrating these acts, a critical step toward ensuring they are “held accountable.”
The decision comes amid mounting and dire warnings from aid agencies and UN officials of widespread crimes against humanity and a looming risk of genocide, echoing the horrors that scarred Darfur two decades ago.
A Stain Visible from Space
“Bloodstains on the ground in al-Fashir have been photographed from space,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk declared in a somber opening address, referencing satellite imagery of burned villages and mass graves. “The stain on the record of the international community is less visible but no less damaging.”
His stark metaphor underscored the international community’s perceived failure to halt a war that has plunged a nation into chaos. Since the conflict erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), tens of thousands have been killed. The fighting has displaced nearly 12 million people—creating the world’s largest internal displacement crisis—and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
Escalation in al-Fashir: A City Under Siege
The violence has reached a terrifying crescendo in recent weeks. After a brutal 18-month siege, the RSF seized control of al-Fashir, the last major city in the Darfur region previously held by the army. The fall of this strategic hub has been accompanied by a multiplication of atrocity reports.
British Ambassador Simon Manley, whose country requested the special session along with Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, stated that the evidence points to a systematic campaign of terror.
“The violence in al-Fashir bears the hallmarks of a coordinated campaign against civilians by the Rapid Support Forces,” he told the council. He cited “credible reports of extrajudicial killings, systematic sexual violence, and the deliberate use of starvation as a method of war.”
A Cycle of Impunity and a Historical Echo
The resolution was adopted by consensus, a sign of the widespread international concern. However, several countries, including Sudan’s own representative, disassociated themselves from the paragraphs broadening the investigation’s scope, highlighting the deep political divisions the conflict has engendered.
The current atrocities carry a chilling resonance with the genocide perpetrated in Darfur in the early 2000s. The RSF itself evolved from the Janjaweed militias, which were unleashed by the former government to terrorize non-Arab ethnic groups. The current attacks, particularly targeting the Masalit and other African-descended communities, suggest a grim recurrence of this ethnic cleansing campaign.
A Harrowing Account of Suffering
Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN’s fact-finding mission, provided harrowing details to the council. She reported that communications blackouts in al-Fashir have not prevented the flow of grim information.
“Information gathered indicates that hundreds of women and girls were raped and gang-raped along escape routes, including in public, without fear of repercussions or accountability,” Rishmawi said.
The UN estimates that nearly 100,000 people have fled al-Fashir in the past two weeks alone, many seeking refuge in the already overwhelmed town of Tawila, 50 kilometers away. These displaced join a sea of humanity living in dire conditions, with humanitarian access severely hampered by the fighting and bureaucratic obstacles.
As the Fact-Finding Mission prepares to deploy its resources to al-Fashir, the international community watches to see if this latest investigation can succeed where others have struggled—not only in documenting the horrors, but in finally breaking the cycle of impunity that has fueled Sudan’s descent into nightmare.
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