Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed that another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in the Sudanese city of El Obeid, warning of a repeat of the atrocities and calling on the international community to take action.
Turk said that civilians in the city of Al-Abyad have been subjected to siege-like conditions for 18 months, with a severe shortage of clean water and continuous drone strikes.
During a panel discussion at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turk told delegates that the commission had documented patterns of summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence along the routes taken by displaced people across the Kordofan region.
He urged the international community to take action to prevent a repeat of the massive atrocities that occurred in El Fasher, North Darfur State, last year.
Turk said: "The indications coming from El Obeid are clear and unambiguous, as a new human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan, this time in the strategically important capital of North Kordofan state."
Fears of a new wave of displacement
The meeting was convened at the request of Britain, whose envoy had previously warned of atrocities as the Rapid Support Forces massed their troops around El Obeid, one of Sudan’s largest cities and where displaced people from other conflict zones have sought refuge.
The UN's International Organization for Migration said on Friday that a large-scale attack on El Obeid could force hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee again, at a time when humanitarian capacity is already stretched to its limits.
Data from the organization showed that the number of newly displaced people in Kordofan has increased by nearly two-thirds to over 219,000 since February. El Obeid alone is sheltering nearly half a million people, including more than 83,000 internally displaced persons.
The Rapid Support Forces say their operations around El Obeid are military in nature. They have previously stated that they do not deliberately target civilians and that those responsible for violations will be held accountable.
Protests kill civilians
As in other conflicts, drone strikes have increasingly come to dominate the war in Sudan and often cause civilian casualties.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that at least 45 civilians were killed and 41 others injured in 15 drone attacks on El Obeid and surrounding areas between June 6 and June 28.
Human rights groups have documented war crimes suspected to have been committed by both sides during the conflict, and the Rapid Support Forces have been accused of repeated atrocities and ethnically based violence, particularly in their stronghold of Darfur in western Sudan.
According to the commission, El Fasher witnessed the killing of at least six thousand people in just three days when the Rapid Support Forces took control of the besieged and famine-stricken city in late October.
The commission concluded that the Rapid Support Forces and allied armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including indiscriminate killings, summary executions, sexual violence and torture.
A draft resolution before the UN Human Rights Council strongly condemns the escalating violence attributed to the Rapid Support Forces in and around the city of El Obeid, warning of an imminent risk of widespread atrocities.
Sudan’s military-allied government’s foreign minister, Mohi El-Din Salem Ahmed Ibrahim, told the council that the international community must exert tangible pressure to stop the flow of advanced military equipment and weapons to the Rapid Support Forces.
El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, is a recent battleground in the ongoing war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been raging for more than three years.
