A Sudanese armored car remains parked in a neighborhood south of the country’s capital, Khartoum, last Sunday.- (AFP)
The high commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights (OHCHR), Volker Türk, described this Wednesday as “desperate” and “heartbreaking” the situation that Sudan has been experiencing since the beginning of the fighting between the Army and the country’s main paramilitary group. in mid-April, and urged both sides to stop “senseless violence”. Türk’s remarks came after the two opposing forces again violated a week-long ceasefire, supervised by the United States and Saudi Arabia, which formally came into force on Monday in a new attempt to alleviate the critical humanitarian situation. in the country after more than five weeks of clashes. The conflict has left hundreds dead, thousands injured and more than a million displaced.
In his speech during a press conference held in Switzerland, Türk regretted that civilians in Sudan continue to be exposed to serious risks of death and injury due to the rapid and repeated failure to comply with the multiple truces announced in the country since the first week of fighting. “Despite the successive temporary cessations of hostilities and the fact that they continue to make these arrangements, we see that they are broken just a few hours after they are signed,” he stated.
The Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries have been locked in a bitter power-for-power struggle in the country since the morning of 15 April. The fighting has left at least 850 civilians dead and more than 3,500 wounded. Battles between the two sides are concentrating on the capital, Khartoum, where paramilitaries have become strong and control many residential areas. Also in the western region of Darfur, their traditional stronghold.
The last ceasefire between the Army and the paramilitaries was agreed on Saturday with the mediation of Saudi Arabia and the United States, and was scheduled to take effect on Monday night and last for seven days with the aim of facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid and restore essential services in the areas of the country most affected by the fighting. Although all previous truces had been violated, this latest agreement contemplated for the first time the formation of a committee made up of the two opposing sides and US and Saudi representatives to oversee compliance.
However, after concluding the first day with the ceasefire formally in force, the Saudi and American facilitators of the committee, which is not endowed with mechanisms to enforce the agreement, affirmed that, although the clashes seemed less intense than in the previous days prior, “both sides had violated” the truce and airstrikes, artillery, and operations had been documented in Khartoum and at least one second city.
Türk also denounced this Wednesday “very worrying” reports of sexual violence in Khartoum and Darfur, and indicated that the body he heads has evidence of at least 25 cases, although he acknowledged that it is difficult to document them and that he is sure that “the real number of cases is much higher. The UN expert on human rights in Sudan, Radhouane Nouicer, assured on his behalf on Tuesday that they are registering an increase in reports of rape and other forms of sexual violence by uniformed men in the country.
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Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, last February in Geneva.Violaine Martin (UN)
Hungry doctors without resources
Nouicer also described as dehumanizing the level of suffering of the civilian population due to the ongoing fighting, which he considered to be destroying the country. The former Tunisian diplomat further stated that he is receiving “heartbreaking” accounts of doctors going hungry in hospitals while trying to care for patients with hardly any resources; of displaced civilians, of separated families, of looted homes and of people shot while trying to escape the violence.
“What is happening is as bad as anything I have seen in conflict zones in my long career. It is horrible, tragic, brutal and completely unnecessary,” said Nouicer, who noted that “the full range of human rights is being violated.” “People feel alone and abandoned amid chronic shortages of food and drinking water, houses destroyed, indiscriminate attacks on residential areas and widespread looting; the whole country is being held hostage,” he slipped.
Türk, for his part, took advantage of his speech to affirm that “almost total impunity for serious violations” of human rights is at the origin of the struggle for power between the Army and the paramilitaries, and asked that efforts to put an end to the conflict integrate human rights and accountability for lasting peace. Türk’s reading of the causes of the conflict in the country and the conditions for articulating a stable solution coincide with the demands that he has been raising for years by the Sudanese democratic movement and yet ignored by the international community.
Since the start of the fighting in Sudan, more than a million people have been forced to leave their homes, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Of these, more than 840,000 have been internally displaced to other parts of Sudan where the security situation is more stable, while more than 300,000 have taken refuge in neighboring countries such as Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic.
Sudanese refugees in Koufroun, Chad on May 9. ZOHRA BENSEMRA (THE COUNTRY)
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