A report released on Monday by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) assessed the human rights situation of Sudanese refugees who have fled to South Sudan. The report documented a series of attacks on civilians by armed actors within Sudan, constituting violations of international law.
The report follows the Joint Human Rights Office in Sudan‘s monitoring mission in South Sudan conducted over nine days from 21 to 30 November 2023. During this investigation, the Joint Human Rights Team found “a range of violations […] including indiscriminate attacks resulting in killing and injury of civilians.” Civilian killings, conflict-related sexual violence, enforced disappearance, kidnapping, displacement due to violence, and attacks and looting of residential buildings, schools, hospitals, and essential infrastructure were all reportedly committed by both the Rapid Support Forces (RAF) and its allied Arab militias and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The findings of the investigation reported around 67 civilians, including 47 men, 6 women and 12 children, were killed, primarily in Khartoum, the capital city, and Darfur region of Sudan. Some of these individuals were “reportedly targeted because of their perceived race or ethnic groups, and political affiliation, as well as economic situation…” Documented incidents reported by victims or direct witnesses who have fled Sudan to refugee camps and returnees’ settlements in the Western Bahr El Ghazal, Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Unity states of South Sudan were collected for the report. They cited incidents such as shelling and airstrikes in populated areas, looting, conflict-related sexual violence including rape, pillaging, killings of persons hors de combat, torture, disappearances, and displacement due to the conflict, among other violations.
Violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and human rights law documented in the report highlight the “weakening of state authority” and implicate a “failure of all parties to the conflict to respect and ensure respect of international law.” The report references several international human rights treaties Sudan is party to, specifying articles within the Geneva Conventions and Second Additional Protocol, which, per common Article 3, prohibit directing attacks against civilians and persons not actively partaking in the hostilities. Article 13(1) of Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions asserts that “[t]he civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against the dangers arising from military operations,” the violation of which, the report notes, may “amount to a war crime for which perpetrators should be held accountable”.
The OHCHR called on the conflicting parties to “[i]mmediately stop the fighting and urgently resume political discussion towards a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire,” in addition to allowing safe passage for civilians fleeing the conflict and respecting their legal obligations under international humanitarian law. The recommendations also appealed for “all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects” to be taken, alongside revealing the locations of missing persons, conducting investigations into all allegations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law violations and abused and guaranteeing victims access to justice and reparations.
