Violence in Sudan's El-Fasher “stain” on international community: UN

The horrific bloodshed in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher is a "stain" on the world, the UN said Friday, urging the international community to act following warnings of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Since breaking out in April 2023, the war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million more and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The violence has escalated dramatically in recent weeks, with the RSF seizing control of the key town of El-Fasher in Sudan's western Darfur region after an 18-month siege.

"Bloodstains on the ground in El-Fasher have been photographed from space," UN rights chief Volker Turk said.

"The stain on the record of the international community is less visible but no less damaging."

Opening an urgent special session of the UN Human Rights Council about El-Fasher, he said the international community had not intervened despite repeated reports of "appalling atrocities" and warned perpetrators they would eventually be held to account.

“Crime scene”

British ambassador Kumar Iyer urged the international community to pay "attention to the horrors unfolding in El-Fasher".

"Staying silent is not an option," Iyer said.

Reports have emerged of executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers and abductions in and around El-Fasher, where communications remain largely cut off.

The UN estimates that nearly 100,000 have fled El-Fasher in the past two weeks, many going to Tawila, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away.

"(They) recount unimaginable horrors prior to and during their escape", the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

"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," Mona Rishmawi, from the UN's independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, told Friday's session.

“Risk of genocide”

Adama Dieng, the African Union special envoy and the UN special adviser for the prevention of genocide, meanwhile warned that "the risk of genocide exists in Sudan. It is real and it is growing every single day."

Sudanese ambassador Hassan Hamid Hassan agreed.

"What is happening in Sudan is an existential war that is targeting a whole community," he said.

He condemned the United Arab Emirates in particular for "supporting (the RSF) with military and strategic equipment"; while the UAE denies backing the RSF.

UAE ambassador Jamal Jama Al Musharakh criticised both the RSF and the Sudanese army, accusing the latter of "indiscriminate attacks on markets, villages and hospitals, amid famine, while ignoring international calls for a truce".

“Justice will prevail”

The draft resolution under discussion Friday "condemns all forms of external interference that fuel the conflict".

And it calls for the fact-finding mission to urgently investigate alleged violations of international law in El-Fasher, and seek to identify all alleged perpetrators with an eye to holding them accountable.

Turk warned that "the International Criminal Court has indicated that it is following the situation closely".

"All those involved in this conflict should know: We are watching you, and justice will prevail."

He also said that "despicable disregard for civilian lives" was also becoming apparent in the neighbouring Kordofan region, which bridges the west of the country with the capital.

"Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur," he added.