Türk’s human rights chief renewed his call to end the escalating war in Sudan

Key points

• Türk called for an immediate ceasefire and an end to foreign involvement
• Civilians face increasing attacks, including from long-range drones
• The SAF and RSF may have committed war crimes
• Sudan’s health care system has suffered serious damage

Now entering its fourth year, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created a massive humanitarian emergency, with more than six million people internally displaced and another 4.5 million forced to seek refuge across the Sudanese border.

In his plea for an end to the violence, UN human rights chief Mr. Türk warned of the worsening situation in Kordofan, Blue Nile, and North and West Darfur, and stressed that civilians remained at “imminent” risk.

Call for a ceasefire

“There needs to be an immediate ceasefire, an end to foreign involvement, and a return to inclusive civilian rule,” he stressed.

The High Commissioner’s appeal follows the publication of the new report report into the conflict by an independent senior investigator appointed by Human Rights Council. The investigators are not UN staff and they are not paid for their work.

Their key findings include the increasing use of long-range drones against civilians and significant support allegedly provided to paramilitary rebel fighters by “individuals and entities” in the United Arab Emirates, Chad, southeastern Libya and Puntland in Somalia.

“Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are increasingly using long-range drones, so attacks now reach far beyond traditional frontlines,” said Mohamed Othman, chairman of the Sudanese Armed Forces. Fact Finding Mission to Sudanestablished by the Council in Geneva in October 2023.

Othman also emphasized that drone strikes have injured and killed civilians “in homes, schools, hospitals, markets, refugee camps and refugee camps as well as while attending weddings, funerals and other community gatherings.”

Turning to the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan, where access is highly contested, human rights investigators warned that “repeated RSF drone attacks” had impacted water, energy and other critical civilian infrastructure.

“These attacks underline that these risks remain acute, as civilians face ongoing air threats, displacement and pressure on already limited essential services,” he said, in a city partially besieged by the RSF.

The fact-finding mission report highlights how both parties to the conflict carried out attacks on civilians.

These attacks include “successive” RSF drone attacks on a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogie, South Kordofan, which left 114 people dead including 60 children, as well as an SAF attack on the Ad-Da’ein Teaching Hospital that killed at least 70 people.

“Based on the evidence gathered, we find reasonable grounds to believe that the SAF and RSF committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that may constitute war crimes,” Othman told the Council.

Health care collapse

In a separate update from Khartoum, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Monday that the destruction of three main hospitals in the capital had been repeated across the country.

Before the conflict, the Khartoum Teaching Hospital, Eye Hospital and Dental Hospital were the main referral and teaching hospitals. Currently, their buildings and medical equipment are seriously damaged.

“The operating room was destroyed, imaging equipment was lost and several wards collapsed,” said WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr Abdinasir Abubakar. “Entire blocks and departments are out of service. The buildings require immediate structural repairs before patients can be admitted safely.”

Despite difficult working conditions, hospital staff remained present to treat patients “in parts of the building that were still usable”, continued Dr Abubakar, in an appeal for help to repair the “enormous” damage.