Amnesty International says Sudan’s warring military factions are committing war crimes as the country is ravaged by more than three months of violence. The group has documented premeditated attacks against civilians, sexual violence and action that amounts to war crimes. In the Darfur region, Amnesty says some communities are targeted because of their ethnic identity, leading to hundreds of thousands fleeing into neighboring Chad.
Sarah Jackson, deputy regional director for Amnesty’s East Africa, Horn and Great Lakes, provided details from a new report.
"The report that Amnesty International is launching today, ‘Death Came to Our Home,’ looks at war crimes and civilian suffering in the current context in Sudan,” she said. “It looks at the deliberate targeting of civilians as well as civilians who have been caught in the crossfire. And it also documents cases of sexual violence. It shows how serious the war crimes are that are being committed by the rapid support forces and the Sudanese armed forces in the context of the current conflict where we see untold death and destruction."
Sudan security factions turned their guns against each other in April in what appears to be a power struggle between the leader of Sudan's Sovereign Council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
The conflict has killed thousands and displaced 4 million people from their homes, who now are living in dire conditions.
The human rights group’s investigators spoke to at least 180 Sudanese inside and outside of the country to document attacks on civilians, humanitarian infrastructure and sexual violence against women and girls.
Amnesty International’s Somalia and Sudan researcher Abdullahi Hassan said the group has evidence to back up the accounts of abuses taking place in the country.
"The report is also supported by other evidence, including digital evidence, which is verified by our evidence lab team, including photos, videos, satellite imagery and forensic reports,” he said. “Essentially, what these people told us is that the fighting in Sudan is really devastating communities, both in Khartoum and in Darfur, and particularly in Western Darfur. In Western Darfur, we were able to document targeted, ethnically motivated attacks carried out by the RSF and Arab militias on ethnic Masalit people."
The latest Sudan conflict has ignited ethnic conflict in the Darfur region, which has seen targeted killings and ethnically motivated attacks conducted by the RSF and allied militias.
It's not the first time Sudan's army leaders and militias have been accused of war crimes. The International Criminal Court in the Hague issued four arrest warrants, including former president Omar al-Bashir's relation to the conflict in Darfur between 2003-2008, on charges of war crimes and genocide.
Last month, the ICC launched an investigation into the conflict in the Darfur region, where armed groups are accused of killings, rapes, arson, population displacement and crimes affecting children.
Jackson says lack of accountability for past atrocities is enabling some leaders and armed individuals to continue to carry out attacks.
"Impunity for crimes that have been committed in the past is absolutely a central driver of this current conflict that Hemedti and Burhan think they can get away with this, because they have done in the past,” she said. “So, it's really vital that accountability is central to any solution of the current situation, and families of victims and survivors of abuse deserve justice, they deserve truth, and they deserve reparations."
Flavia Mwangovya, the deputy regional director of Amnesty for Eastern and Southern Africa, calls for restrictions and an arms ban to protect the Sudanese population.
"We are calling on the United Nations Security Council to specifically consider the question around the arms embargo that is already in the territory of Darfur, that all countries around the world and neighboring should ensure that this arms embargo is respected … and we are also asking that the U.N. Security Council to actually consider expanding this arms embargo to the rest of Sudan given what we are seeing in terms of the violations,” she said.
The rights group urges the rival armies and other militias to safeguard civilians and cease attacks. It also calls on neighboring countries to open their borders and offer refuge to Sudanese people seeking safety.
