Sudan’s military-led government has rejected a call from a UN fact-finding mission to deploy an international force to protect civilians from the country’s ongoing civil war.
According to the UN mission, the warring parties in Sudan have committed “appalling” human rights violations against civilians.
Since the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in April 2023, thousands of people have been killed and nearly eight million have been displaced.
The two staged a coup together, but then came into conflict with each other, leading to a civil war in Sudan.
“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to protect civilians is deployed without delay,” said Chande Othman, head of the UN mission.
The fact-finding mission also called for the imposition of an arms embargo on both sides involved in the conflict.
The findings were reported after collecting first-hand accounts from 182 survivors, family members and eyewitnesses.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is accused of supporting the RSF with money and weapons, which it denies. Saudi Arabia is also said to have close ties with the Sudanese government.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said the government had “completely” rejected the fact-finding mission’s recommendations.
The UN Human Rights Council was described as “a political and illegal body” and the mission’s recommendations constituted “a flagrant violation of its mandate”.
The RSF has not yet commented on the proposal.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on the “world to wake up and help Sudan emerge from the nightmare it is in”, AFP news agency reported.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke during a visit to Port Sudan, the main hub for aid agencies and the new government headquarters after it was expelled from the capital Khartoum by the RSF.
“The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the lack of action to contain the conflict and reduce the suffering it causes,” said Dr Tedros.
In August, a UN-backed commission of experts declared a famine in a camp housing about 500,000 displaced people near the besieged town of El-Fasher in Darfur, one of the regions hardest hit by the conflict.
Several mediation attempts, mediated by Saudi Arabia and the US, have failed to end the conflict.
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