The United Nations’ top human rights official warned Thursday of “a new wave of atrocities” in Sudan as fighting shifts to the sprawling, oil-rich region of Kordofan, east of Darfur. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged “all states with influence over the parties to take immediate action to halt the fighting, and stop the arms flows that are fueling the conflict.”
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, have been expanding their offensive after taking over the city of El-Fasher in Darfur last month following a brutal 18-month siege. Local observers and human rights monitors reported massacres of civilians and widespread sexual violence by RSF fighters.
In a WPR briefing last week, Yasir Zaidan noted that the Sudanese Armed Forces had in recent months reclaimed several states from RSF control, including areas around the capital, Khartoum, and parts of Kordofan. “The army’s advances provided a modicum of stability and security for civilian populations battered by years of war,” he wrote. However, he pointed out, “El-Fasher’s fall now places an RSF-controlled logistical corridor within range of those population centers and the agricultural zones that sustain them.”
After capturing El-Fasher the RSF declared a unilateral “humanitarian truce,” but as Zaidan predicted, that turned out to be a hollow promise. “Past ceasefire agreements have consistently failed, with the RSF exploiting them to reorganize, solidify advantages and avoid accountability,” he wrote, adding that for diplomacy to be successful, “it will need to be accompanied by meaningful pressure,” primarily from the United Arab Emirates, the RSF’s main source of funding and supplies.
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