Sudan: UN security council denounce paramilitary attacks
The United Nations Security Council denounced on October 30th the actions of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of el-Fasher, Sudan, describing an “assault” on civilians, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
In the official statement made by the UN’s Security Council, they stated that the attacks being conducted by the RSF in el-Fasher evokes signs of ethnic cleansing. They claimed to have “condemned reported atrocities being perpetrated by the RSF against the civilian population, including summary executions and arbitrary detentions, and expressed grave concern at the heightened risk of large-scale atrocities, including ethnically motivated atrocities.”
The UN’s statements mirror previous concerns from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab surrounding ethnic cleansing. Across the Darfur region, there has been mass violence conducted by the RSF aimed at civilians, including drone strikes earlier this month that killed at least 110 people. Furthermore, following the RSF’s successful capture of el-Fasher, there has been escalations of civilian-focused violence, with a reported 460 patients dead in a hospital shooting.
Council members discussed the role played by the RSF in evading international law, urging all perpetrators of violence who have violated these laws to be held accountable.
UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher criticised the Security Council’s lack of action regarding Sudan up until this point. Sudan has been in a state of humanitarian crisis since 2023 following the outbreak of the civil war, where at least 40,000 have died so far, 14 million have been displaced and war crimes are suspected to have been committed as a result of the conflict.
The UN’s condemnation of the RSF’s actions follows an existing pattern of international bodies, such as the WHO, recognising the atrocities being committed in Sudan. However, with so many people already dead, injured, sick, traumatised, starving and displaced as a result of the civil war, this calls into question whether it is too late now for international organizations to impose accountability in Sudan.
Asharq Al-Awsat, Maghrebi.org
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