Nearly a month after the outbreak of fighting in Sudan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Thursday denounced “gratuitous and unjustified violence” and called on influential countries to the region to press “by all possible means” to resolve the Sudanese crisis, reports the United Nations news site.
Speaking at the opening of a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the situation in Sudan, he strongly condemned this gratuitous violence, in which the two parties, the army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), “have flouted international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution”.
The conflict between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the FSR of General Mohamed Hamdane Dagalo, has plunged this North-East African country “into disaster”, according to Volker Türk who also denounced the use of violence by individuals who have no regard for the lives and fundamental rights of millions of their own compatriots.
The balance sheet shows at least 487 civilians killed, notably in Khartoum, El Geneina, Nyala and El Obeid. More than 154,000 people have fled the country. The UN estimates the number of internally displaced people in Sudan at 700,000. “People who remain in conflict-affected areas are at grave and permanent risk,” warns Türk.
“If there is a lesson to be learned from this tragic crisis, it is that it is urgent that all transition agreements are based on fundamental commitments to accountability, non-discrimination and participation , so that peace is lasting and stable, because it is just,” he continued.
He also recalled the urgency, for the two parties in conflict, to engage in an inclusive political process and in a negotiated peace.
In this regard, he argues that the ongoing talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; which focus on establishing a ceasefire, must be complemented by commitments to a humanitarian truce, to allow the delivery of vital aid, to allow civilians to leave the areas of hostilities and to protect humanitarian supplies from looting.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1168 of 11/05/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
