UN documents RSF's atrocities in Sudan's Al Fasher as ICRC urges world leaders to act

The UN human rights office has said hundreds of Sudanese civilians and unarmed fighters may have been killed during the Sudanese paramilitary forces' (RSF) capture of the long-besieged city of Al Fasher.

"We estimate the death toll of civilians and those placed hors de combat during the RSF attack on the city and its exit routes, as well as in the days after the takeover, could amount to hundreds," UN human rights office spokesperson Seif Magango told a Geneva press briefing on Friday, describing testimonies of summary executions and mass killings.

One witness described the killing of a couple of hundred men by militants who shouted racial slurs and then began shooting.

Magango said the office had received testimonies from aid workers that at least 25 women were gang-raped when RSF militants entered a shelter for displaced people near the university.

"Witnesses confirm RSF personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons, around 100 families, to leave the location amid shooting and intimidation of older residents," he told reporters.

World leaders must act

In a separate statement, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged world leaders to take decisive action to end the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Sudan, describing the situation in Al Fasher and other parts of the country as a "humanitarian catastrophe".

"The appalling abuses of the rules of war we are witnessing in Sudan are indefensible," Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.

"No patient should be killed in a hospital, and no civilian should be shot while trying to flee their home."

"These horrific attacks must stop, and international humanitarian law must be respected," she urged.

She warned that civilians are enduring "brutal attacks, rampant sexual violence and the deliberate destruction of essential services," adding that hospitals and health centres "once dedicated to saving lives have become scenes of death and destruction."

"Leaders must now show political courage to stop the killing," she said, stressing that all states have a duty to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure others do the same.

"Lives in Sudan now depend on strong and decisive action to stop these atrocities. The world cannot stand by as civilians are stripped of safety and dignity," she concluded.

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Source: TRT