GENEVA: Rape is widespread in Sudan’s civil war, a United Nations investigation said Tuesday, accusing paramilitaries especially of committing sexual violence on a “staggering” scale.
Children are not spared the abuse, while women and girls are being abducted for sexual slavery, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in a new report.
“There is no safe place in Sudan now,” the investigation’s chair Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement.
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army (SAF) under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The civil war has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Monday that Sudan was enduring a “nightmare” of hunger, violence, illness and “unspeakable atrocities.”
The fact-finding mission said Tuesday the war had resulted in thousands of killings, injuries, extensive displacement and the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals.
“The situation remains grim as the conflict rages on, causing civilians immense suffering,” it said.
About 11.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes by the war, among them nearly three million who have fled outside Sudan, according to the UN refugee agency.
More than 25 million people — more than half the population — are facing acute hunger.
The SAF, the RSF and their allied militias “have committed large-scale human rights and international humanitarian law violations, many of which may amount to war crimes and/or crimes against humanity,” the mission concluded.
Both sides have arrested and detained people arbitrarily, and have engaged in torture amounting to war crimes.
“Both obstructed access to humanitarian aid for civilians in need,” the mission said.
The report accused both sides of sexual violence, but said the RSF was behind the “large majority” of documented cases.
The mission said the RSF was responsible for “sexual violence on a large scale,” including “gang-rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery.”
It also said the RSF and its allies had committed a range of other war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “abduction, and recruitment and use of children in hostilities,” amid systematic looting and pillaging.
“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania.
“The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address.”
Such abuses were “part of a pattern aimed at terrorizing and punishing civilians for perceived links with opponents,” and suppressing any opposition to their military advances.
In the western Darfur region, sexual violence was committed “with particular cruelty, with firearms, knives and whips.”
The report said: “First-hand sources informed of rape of girls as young as eight years and women as old as 75.”
Victims were often subjected to “punching, beatings with sticks and lashing, before and during the rape,” with sexual violence often occurring in the presence of the victims’ relatives.
The mission said they had received credible information “about rape and gang-rape of men and boys.”
Chaired by Othman, the three-member mission was established in October 2023 by the UN Human Rights Council, charged with probing all alleged human rights and international humanitarian law violations in the conflict.
Tuesday’s 80-page report expands on the mission’s first report to the rights council, delivered in September.
The mission called for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire.
They repeated their call for the deployment of an independent force with a mandate to protect civilians.
The mission also said the arms embargo on Darfur, and the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the region, should be extended to the whole country, while former president Omar Al-Bashir should be surrendered to the ICC.
Sexual violence on ‘staggering’ scale in Sudan civil war: UN probe
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Sexual violence on ‘staggering’ scale in Sudan civil war: UN probe
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- Children are not spared the abuse, while women and girls are being abducted for sexual slavery
- War between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces has triggered one of the worst humanitarian crises
Netanyahu appoints adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks
- The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser.
- Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister
The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate a second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Here’s the latest:
Netanyahu appoints close adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire negotiations
An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The official says that Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer will head the Israeli team. Previous talks have been led by the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies.
Talks have not yet started on the second stage, which is meant to include an end to the war, return of all hostages and Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been officially announced.
The US-born Dermer is widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, where he has been a key player in relations with the US as well as Gulf Arab countries.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps
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- The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups
JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.
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The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps
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- The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups
JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.
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The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.
More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN
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- “Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
GENEVA: More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad, including 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.
Assad was toppled in December in a rebel offensive, putting an end to his family’s decades-long grip on power in the Middle Eastern country and bookmarking a civil war that broke out in 2011, with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions from their homes.
The Islamist-led rebels whose offensive ousted Assad have sought to assure the international community that they have broken with their past and will respect the rights of minorities.
“Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.
“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.
At a meeting in Paris in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Turkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”
The meeting’s final statement also pledged support for Syria’s new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”