The United Nations adopted a measure to send a fact-finding mission to El Fasher in Sudan, the site of one of the biggest massacres in recent history.
The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the measure on Friday without a vote, indicating that no member objected enough to call one. The move is a strong initial maneuver to pursue human rights abuses charges against the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, who were documented murdering thousands of civilians after taking the city of El Fasher, the last Sudanese Armed Forces stronghold in Darfur.
In his remarks opening the special session on the violence in El Fasher, UNHRC High Commissioner Volker Turk began by listing the litany of crimes allegedly committed by the RSF in El Fasher: mass killings of civilians, ethnically targeted executions, sexual violence including gang rape, abductions for ransom, widespread arbitrary detentions, attacks on health facilities, killing of medical staff and humanitarian workers, and more.
“Bloodstains on the ground in El Fasher have been photographed from space,” he said. “The stain on the record of the international community is less visible, but no less damaging.”
Turk noted that the UNHRC had already deployed several missions to areas outside of El Fasher where civilians had fled, with more on the way. The missions are gathering evidence of atrocities, he said, “that could be used in legal proceedings.” He further noted that the International Criminal Court has indicated its close monitoring of the situation.
“All those involved in this conflict should know: We are watching you, and justice must prevail,” Turk said.
The fact-finding mission to El Fasher would gather evidence of RSF atrocities and attempt to identify individual perpetrators. If the group is uncooperative, it risks further international backlash and may jeopardize its legitimacy as it seeks to set up a parallel government to entrench its position.
Turk also warned against further RSF atrocities as it embarks on a new offensive eastward into SAF territory. It is besieging the cities of El Obeid, Babanoussa, and El Diling in the buffer zone between RSF and SAF strongholds.
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“I must issue another stark warning about surging violence in Kordofan,” he said. “All the signs are there: bombardments; blockades; people forced from their homes; a despicable disregard for civilian lives. Kordofan must not suffer the same fate as Darfur.”
While the U.N. is often criticized for its perceived impotence, international pressure has played a significant role in a conflict so influenced by outside forces that some analysts have called it a proxy war. The United Arab Emirates has been credited with almost single-handedly reviving the RSF after its crushing defeat in the capital of Khartoum earlier this year. The SAF, meanwhile, enjoys extensive support from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Russia.