The UN Human Rights Council on Monday renewed the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, stressing its condemnation of the ongoing conflict between the parties and its concern about the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 23 to 12, an uptick from last year’s 19 to 16. The increase signals the growing support for the mandate of the mission to investigate human rights violations in Sudan and ensure that those responsible for these abuses are held accountable.

The mandate was established in 2023 in response to the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan. The three mission members were tasked to investigate the facts and root causes of all alleged human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, and to make recommendations to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the General Assembly to ensure accountability and access to justice for the victims.

In the past year, rights-based organizations and activists have detailed the civilian sufferings in Sudan, including famine, gender-based violence, and the crackdown on aid workers. The first report published by the mission last month found that the two warring parties are responsible for the large-scale violations that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report recommended deploying an independent and impartial force to protect civilians and establishing a separate international judicial mechanism working in tandem with the International Criminal Court to provide access to justice for the victims. The report further recommended that all states and entities expand the existing arms embargo in Darfur to ensure the ceasing of arms flow to both the rival parties in the Sudan conflict.

The power struggle between the rival parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – erupted into a large-scale conflict in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in April 2023. The conflict has left almost 25 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and displaced more than 8.1 million people, making this one of the world’s largest internal displacement crises.