GENEVA (11 April 2025) – Warring parties in Sudan are
overseeing a wholesale assault on human rights amid global
inaction, with deeply catastrophic consequences for
civilians, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker
Türk today as the conflict approaches its third
year.
“As hostilities have expanded in reach and
intensity over the past year, the lives and hopes of so many
Sudanese have been uprooted and caught in a mire of death,
deprivation and suffering,” said Türk. “Two years of
this brutal and senseless conflict must be a wake-up call to
the parties to lay down their weapons and for the
international community to act. Sudan must not remain on
this destructive path.”
The ongoing
conflict is not merely a power struggle, he said, but is
significantly influenced by economic and business interests
of national and international actors, in key sectors such as
gold and agricultural commodities. Revenue generated from
international trade in Sudan’s gold, gum arabic and
livestock has become the financial backbone of the war
economy.
Proliferation of arms and
continued weapons supplies, including to the western Darfur
region, where a UN Security Council arms embargo is in
place, are also compounding the fighting, enabling
violations of international law and undermining peace
efforts. “All those involved in facilitating the transfer
of arms and military material to Darfur must stop, in line
with their obligations to comply with the arms embargo,”
said Türk, also calling for the arms embargo to be expanded
to cover the whole of Sudan.
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The conflict, between the
Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, has been
marked by complete disregard for the laws of war and for
international human rights law from the outset, with the
parties regularly attacking populated areas and critical
civilian infrastructure, such as healthcare facilities,
water stations and power plants, perpetrating serious human
rights violations and abuses, and obstructing humanitarian
aid, added the High Commissioner.
Retaliatory attacks
and summary killings of people suspected of collaborating
with opposing forces – which are often
ethnically-motivated – have continued unabated, fanned by
hate speech and incitement to violence, particularly on
social media. At the end of last month, for example, dozens
of people were brutally killed in Khartoum in the aftermath
of its recapture by the SAF, on suspicions that they were
collaborating with the RSF. In North and West Darfur, the UN
Human Rights Office has documented targeted attacks by the
RSF on villages, based on the ethnicity of the
residents.
Sexual violence remains pervasive across
Sudan. Women and girls have been raped, gang-raped, sexually
exploited and abducted for sex on a large scale since the
conflict began.
Torture and other forms of
ill-treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and enforced
disappearances, remain widespread in conflict-affected areas
across the country. Threats, harassment, and intimidation of
members of civil society, among them human rights defenders,
journalists and local humanitarian volunteers, are also on
the rise, and are further limiting civic space and the free
flow of information.
The conflict has also led to an
unprecedented humanitarian and displacement crisis in the
country, ruining lives and livelihoods. At least 12.6
million people have been displaced, an estimated 24.6
million are facing acute food insecurity, and some 17
million children are out of school.
“With people’s
rights to food, water, health, housing and education
massively curtailed, the brutal conflict in Sudan is not
only laying waste to today’s Sudan, but also practically
decimating Sudan’s future,” said Türk. “And the more
protracted it gets, the more difficult the recovery will
be.”
The second anniversary of the conflict also
comes amid heightened concerns for civilians in and around
El Fasher in North Darfur State, where the RSF has tightened
its already longstanding siege amid fears of an imminent
attack. There are also growing concerns about the
hostilities escalating and expanding to new areas, including
in Kordofan, Blue Nile and Northern State.
“We must
take to heart the people of Sudan, as well as their hopes
and ambitions for peace, justice and equality,” said the
High Commissioner.
“It is absolutely critical to
ensure respect for international human rights law and
international humanitarian law and deliver accountability
for the widespread breaches which have occurred over the
last two years. The fighting must stop. We need to see the
start of an inclusive process that fosters social cohesion
and addresses the root causes of the conflict, including
entrenched
impunity.”
