Human rights chief Türk renews call for end to spiralling Sudan war

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The ongoing war in Sudan took centre stage at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday where the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, led calls for an end to attacks on civilians in “markets, hospitals [and] fuel stations”.

Tweet URL

Key points

• Türk calls for an immediate ceasefire and end to foreign involvement
• Civilians face growing attacks, including from long-range drones
• SAF and RSF may have committed war crimes
• Sudan’s healthcare system has suffered extensive damage

Now well into its fourth year, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created a massive humanitarian emergency, with more than six million people displaced internally and another 4.5 million forced to seek shelter across Sudan’s borders.

In his appeal for an end to the violence, UN rights chief Mr. Türk warned about the deteriorating situation in Kordofan, Blue Nile, and North and West Darfur, stressing that civilians remain at “imminent” risk. 

Ceasefire call

“There needs to be an immediate ceasefire, an end to foreign involvement, and a return to inclusive civilian rule,” he insisted.

The High Commissioner’s appeal follows the publication of a new report into the conflict by senior independent investigators appointed by the Human Rights Council. The investigators are not UN staff and they are not paid for their work.

Their key findings include the increasing use of long-range drones against civilians and the significant support allegedly provided to paramilitary rebel fighters by “individuals and entities” in the UAE, Chad, southeastern Libya and Puntland in Somalia.

“Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are increasingly using long-range drones, resulting in attacks now reaching far beyond traditional front lines,” said Mohamed Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, which was created by the Council in Geneva in October 2023.

Mr. Othman also stressed that drone strikes had injured and killed civilians “in their homes, schools, hospitals, markets, displacement sites and places of refuge and while attending weddings, funerals and other community gatherings”. 

Turning to El Obeid city in North Kordofan, where access is heavily contested, the human rights investigator warned that “repeated RSF drone attacks” had impacted water, energy and other vital civilian infrastructure.

“These attacks underscore that these risks remain acute, as civilians continue to face repeated aerial threats, displacement and pressure on already strained essential services”, he said, in a city under partial siege by the RSF.

The fact-finding mission’s report highlights how both parties to the conflict have carried out attacks on civilians.

These included “successive” RSF drone strikes on a kindergarten and a hospital in Kalogie, South Kordofan, that left 114 dead including 60 children, along with SAF attacks on Ad-Da’ein Teaching Hospital that killed at least 70 people.

“Based on the evidence gathered, we found reasonable grounds to believe that both the SAF and the RSF committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law which may amount to war crimes,” Mr. Othman told the Council.

Healthcare devastation

In a separate update from Khartoum, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Monday that the devastation of three key hospitals in the capital has been repeated across the country.

Before the conflict, Khartoum Teaching Hospital, the Ophthalmology Hospital and the Dental Hospital were major referral and teaching hospitals. Today, their buildings and medical equipment have sustained extensive damage. 

“Operating theatres have been destroyed, imaging equipment lost and several wards have collapsed,” said WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr Abdinasir Abubakar. “Entire blocks and departments are out of service. The buildings need urgent structural repair before patients can be admitted safely.”

Despite the difficult working conditions, hospital staff remain present to treat patients “in the parts of the buildings that remain usable”, Dr Abubakar continued, in an appeal for assistance to repair the “immense” damage.