Torture, rape, death: UN report highlights widespread violations by both sides in Sudan conflict

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A woman and baby at Zamzam displacement camp, close to El-Fasher, North Darfur, Sudan, Jan. 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 March 2025
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Torture, rape, death: UN report highlights widespread violations by both sides in Sudan conflict

  • Abuses it documents include detention of children and sexual violence against female detainees
  • Many prisoners reportedly die in custody due to neglect amid lack of medical care, food and water

NEW YORK CITY: A UN report on the civil war in Sudan, published on Thursday, revealed disturbing evidence of arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in Khartoum State by both sides.

The findings underscore a broader pattern of abuses by the Sudanese Armed Forces and rival paramilitary faction the Rapid Support Forces in conflict zones throughout the country.

Since the fighting began almost two years ago, tens of thousands of people, including women and children, have been detained without charge. Many face severe restrictions on communication with their families, and are held in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions that violate international human rights standards.

The report, covering the period from the start of the war in April 2023 until June 2024, is based on testimonies from 34 former detainees, their family members, and witnesses. The accounts reveal widespread torture, including frequent beatings, and deplorable conditions including overcrowding, inadequate provision of food and water, and lack of medical care. Many detainees reportedly died in custody as a result of neglect.

“These practices — arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and inhumane conditions — are deeply disturbing,” said the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk.

“No individual should be deprived of their liberty without due process, nor subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

The report also highlighted the plight of child detainees, with some as young as 13 detained alongside adults in certain facilities, raising concern about the exploitation of minors in the conflict. Children as young as 14 reportedly serve as guards in RSF-controlled facilities.

In addition, sexual violence against women was documented at two RSF-run detention centers.

Ethnic discrimination is another troubling issue highlighted by the report. It states that detainees from the Darfur and Kordofan regions, particularly those from African tribes, were disproportionately subjected to torture and mistreatment.

The RSF and SAF have also reportedly targeted individuals based on perceived affiliation with the opposing side in the conflict, with ethnic profiling prevalent in detention facilities run by both forces.

Furthermore, the report raises concerns about enforced disappearances, citing cases in which families are unable to obtain information about the whereabouts or well-being of detained relatives. In one instance, a family was repeatedly warned by RSF intelligence personnel not to inquire about a detained relative, only to later discover he had died.

Though the report focused on Khartoum State, it noted that similar human rights abuses have been documented in other conflict-affected regions, including Darfur and Al-Jazirah State.

The UN has also received reports of detainees being transferred from facilities in Khartoum to other locations, particularly in South Darfur, raising fears that such moves could exacerbate human rights violations.

“These practices undermine the rule of law and due process, and increase the risks of further human rights violations,” Turk said, as he called for immediate action by all those involved in the conflict to improve the situation.

The UN report called for an end to arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment, improvements to conditions in detention facilities, and greater access to justice.

It also encouraged the international community to engage with Sudanese authorities and armed groups to address the abuses and work toward an end to the ongoing crisis in the country.

The release of the report comes with the war in Sudan showing little sign of abating, and amid continuing calls from the international community for an urgent resolution to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in the country.


Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

Updated 04 July 2025
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Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

  • Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war

KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.


Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

Updated 04 July 2025
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Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.

“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.

Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.


Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

Updated 03 July 2025
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Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says

  • The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally,” the Irbil airport authority said

IRBIL, Iraq: An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.

There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources.

The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any damage,” the Irbil airport authority said in a statement.

The incident only caused a temporary delay in the landing of one aircraft, the statement added.


Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims

Updated 03 July 2025
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Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims

  • They say there is a strategic opportunity to integrate the UNESCO World Heritage Site into routes for Christian travelers
  • Head of tourism authority says highlighting Petra’s significance to Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on global religious tourism map

LONDON: Officials from Jordan and the Vatican met on Thursday to discuss ways in which they can cooperate to advance religious tourism, including the promotion of the ancient city of Petra as a destination for Christian pilgrims.

Fares Braizat, who chairs the board of commissioners of the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority, said that highlighting the significance of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on the global religious tourism map.

The country has a number of important Christian sites, the most significant of which is the location on the eastern bank of the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized by John the Baptist. Several popes have visited it, including Francis and John Paul II.

Archbishop Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, the Vatican’s ambassador to Jordan, confirmed the interest in collaborating with Jordanian authorities, and praised the nation’s stability and its rich historical and religious heritage.

Both officials acknowledged the strategic opportunity that exists to integrate Petra into pilgrimage routes for Christian travelers, the Jordan News Agency reported.

The Petra tourism authority recently lit up the Colosseum in Rome with the signature colors of the historic Jordanian site to celebrate a twinning agreement as part of a marketing strategy to attract European visitors, and to raise Petra’s profile globally as a premier cultural and spiritual tourism destination.

The Vatican itself is also a major tourism destination, for Christian pilgrims in particular. In 2025 it is expected to welcome between 30 and 35 million visitors during its latest Jubilee Year, a significant ecclesiastical event that takes place every 25 years.


Last lifelines in Gaza are being cut, UN chief warns

Updated 03 July 2025
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Last lifelines in Gaza are being cut, UN chief warns

  • Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again raises alarm over increasingly dire humanitarian crisis as restrictions on aid mount and civilians run out of safe places to shelter
  • He expresses grave concern over series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians were seeking shelter or trying to obtain food

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said he was “appalled” by the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, condemned recent deadly strikes against displaced people, and warned that the enclave is on the brink of total collapse as fuel supplies run out.

He expressed grave concern over a series of attacks in recent days that hit locations in which Palestinians sought shelter or were trying to access food.

Guterres’ spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, read a statement that said: “Multiple attacks (have) killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The secretary-general strongly condemns the loss of civilian life.”

Civilians in Gaza are running out of safe areas in which to shelter as Israeli evacuation orders continue to expand, Dujarric added as he warned of a dire humanitarian crisis amid mounting restrictions on the delivery of aid and rising casualties among relief workers.

Israeli authorities issued a new displacement order on Thursday targeting parts of Gaza City, citing as a reason rocket fire from Palestinian groups. It affected an estimated 40,000 people, including those living in a displacement site, a medical facility, and a neighborhood previously spared evacuation orders since a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas ended in March.

“As of earlier today, about 900 families are estimated to have fled,” Dujarric said, adding that approximately 78 percent of the Gaza Strip has now been affected by the cumulative effects of more than 50 such orders. When combined with the effects on areas designated as Israeli militarized zones, the figure rises to 85 percent, leaving just 15 percent of the territory available for civilians to live.

“Those areas are, of course, overcrowded,” Dujarric said. “They also severely lack basic services or proper infrastructure.”

He described the remaining habitable zones as fragmented and unsafe, and compared the humanitarian conditions there to having more than 2 million crammed into Manhattan but

“instead of buildings, the area is strewn with the rubble of demolished and burnt-out structures without any infrastructure or basic support.”

The UN Population Fund has reported that an estimated 700,000 women and girls in Gaza are experiencing “a nightmare” situation as a result of lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, water and privacy. It said it has nearly 170 truckloads of supplies ready for delivery but they remain blocked from entering Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that nine more aid workers from five organizations have died in Gaza since last Thursday, bringing the death toll among aid personnel to 107 in 2025, and 479 since the war began in October 2023; 326 members of UN staff are among the dead.

OCHA also highlighted the significant obstacles humanitarian operations faced in June. Out of nearly 400 attempts to coordinate with Israeli authorities, 44 percent were denied, and 10 percent were initially approved but later obstructed. Only a third of the missions were fully facilitated, while 12 percent were canceled due to logistical or security issues.

Four out of 16 humanitarian coordination efforts were denied on Thursday alone, Dujarric said, hindering efforts to relocate medical supplies and clear debris.

“The space left for civilians to stay is shrinking by the day,” he added.

In his statement, Guterres underscored the fact that international humanitarian law is “unambiguous” in its requirement for civilians to be protected and their basic needs met.

He warned that the continuing blockade on fuel deliveries, now entering an 18th week, threatens to bring remaining humanitarian operations to a halt.

“Without an urgent influx of fuel, incubators will shut down, ambulances will be unable to reach the injured and sick, and water cannot be purified,” he said, adding that the UN and its partners might soon be unable to deliver even the limited amount of aid that remains in Gaza.

Guterres repeated his call for “full, safe and sustained humanitarian access,” and said the UN has a ready, proven plan to deliver aid “safely and at scale” to civilians across the territory.

He also renewed his appeal for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” and stressed that all parties involved in the conflict must uphold their obligations under international law.