The Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation called for deployment of a UN mission to protect civilians in Sudan, indicating that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has committed crimes of killing, arbitrary detention and rape all over al-Gezira State, central Sudan.
Khartoum: Altaghyeer
The Human Rights Watch organisation has called on the United Nations to deploy a mission for the protection of Sudanese civilians, citing the scale and severity of the crimes committed by the RSF during its latest operations in al-Gezira State, central Sudan.
The organisation reported that the RSF armed group has killed, injured, and unlawfully detained scores of civilians and raped women and girls during attacks across Sudan’s al-Gezira state.
“Given the scale and severity of the threat to civilians, it is critical for the United Kingdom to use its November United Nations Security Council presidency to push for UN action to deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan”, the Watch pleaded.
Since the defection of its top leader in al-Gezira, Abu Aagla Kaikl, RSF has attacked at least 77 villages and towns in the area, killing more than 1,237 and forcing residents of 400 out of 515 villages to flee their homes, according to latest statistics by al-Gezira Congress.
“This recent massive incursion by the RSF against civilians should end any lingering hopes that these crimes will stop without a strong global response,” said the organisation.
RSF fighters are also reported to have subjected women and girls to sexual violence during these attacks, said the group, adding that “as of November 4, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a regional women’s rights group, had documented 25 cases of rape and gang rape by the RSF, including 10 girls among the victims.”
The rights group also documented at least six cases in which survivors of acts of sexual violence subsequently committed suicide.
On October 30, the UN said that according to local health officials more than 27 women and girls aged 6 – 60 years old had been subjected to rape and sexual assault, said the organisation.
