A Sudanese coalition on Monday called on the UN Human Rights Council to identify and publicly name the countries and external entities supporting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the civil war, and to renew the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan.
The war erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the SAF, led by Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Gen Mohamed Dagalo.
The Sudan Coalition was launched last month by a group of African human rights campaigners to support efforts to end the conflict in Sudan and restore civilian rule.
The UN fact-finding mission warned last week that foreign arms, military technology, fighters and logistical networks are strengthening both sides of the conflict and enabling increasingly sophisticated attacks against civilians.
It said its investigation into the SAF's external support was at an early stage, but had found evidence that foreign-supplied combat drones and loitering munitions – which can hover over an area before striking a target – had expanded the SAF's long-range strike capabilities. It said some of these weapons were used in attacks on civilian locations including Yabus Market in Blue Nile State.
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said on Monday that Sudan has been descending into chaos for years. “The UN Security Council now has a chance to do right by the people of Sudan and remember what it was created to do: stop wars, keep the peace, and protect lives,” he said. “It’s time to expand the arms embargo across all of Sudan. The people have suffered long enough.”
The Sudan Coalition's call was made in a speech delivered by Abdelbagi Jibril, director of the Sudan Centre for Knowledge, on behalf of the coalition, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies and the African Centre for Legal Studies, during the UN Human Rights Council’s 63rd session in Geneva.
The coalition said the mission should continue investigating and documenting violations, preserving evidence and identifying those responsible, arguing that its work was essential to combat impunity and secure justice for victims.
It welcomed the fact-finding mission’s third report on “external support networks” but criticised its methodology and its publication before investigations into external actors supporting the SAF had been completed.
The coalition said reports by the fact-finding mission and the UN human rights office had established that both sides were responsible for widespread and systematic violations of international law. It urged the mission and the Human Rights Council to address all states and entities providing external support to the war “without selectivity or exception”.
The coalition said it hoped the second part of the mission’s report would cover all forms of external intervention and provide a comprehensive picture of the networks contributing to the war’s continuation.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with an estimated 20 million people suffering from hunger.
Yet Gen Al Burhan has vowed to continue fighting until the RSF is defeated, rejecting repeated attempts by the US and regional powers to broker a ceasefire. Both forces have been accused of grave abuses during the war.
Reports published by The New York Times and The Washington Post have revealed that the SAF not only used chemical weapons in the devastating war but also built a secret stockpile that it later sought to conceal.
A dossier of evidence published by the two newspapers details how the SAF tested bombs in Sudan’s desert and built up its chemical weapons operation piece by piece before attempting to cover its tracks.
