UN urged to step up pressure on Sudan as rights situation worsens
Khartoum, June 2 (EFE).- A global rights watchdog on Friday called on the United Nations to step up its pressure on warring Sudanese groups in the wake of the deteriorating human rights situation.
“The UN Security Council needs to increase its pressure on the warring parties in Sudan to end violations of international humanitarian law,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
“As a first step, the Security Council’s three African members should demonstrate leadership by calling for expanding the UN arms embargo to cover the entire country and imposing sanctions on military leaders responsible for grave abuses.”
The Security Council will renew the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) on Friday.
The armed conflict between the country’s military, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 850 people since the violence erupted on April 15.
The UN says the conflict has injured over 5,500 and displaced more than 1.4 million people.
The warring sides have damaged or destroyed infrastructure critical to civilian survival, including cutting off water and electricity.
“The Security Council should reaffirm that protecting civilians is a core pillar of UNITAM’s mission, notably in Darfur,” the rights group said.
“It should press the mission and the UN more broadly to ensure extensive monitoring of the situation there, deploy additional staff, and report regularly on violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights by the warring forces.”
Ceasefire talks collapsed suddenly on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia and the United States announced a pause in the talks they mediated between the warring parties after “repeated serious violations” of the truce.
The latest truce, agreed on May 29 and set to last five days, did little to diminish the violence and effectively collapsed Wednesday after the military withdrew from the negotiations in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
In a related development, the White House imposed sanctions Thursday on Sudanese companies and visa restrictions affecting individuals connected to the army and the RSF.
The conflict in Sudan pits troops loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander-in-chief, against RSF militiamen led by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti.
Hemedti supported al-Burhan in October 2021 when the general seized control of the Sovereign Council that has governed Sudan since the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
But long-standing tensions between the regular army and the RSF paramilitaries erupted into open combat amid discussions about reorganizing the military to expedite a return to civilian rule. EFE
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