Addressing Atrocities in Sudan, Daily Brief August 29, 2024

This week marks 500 days of conflict in Sudan, and with each new report of events on the ground, the horror of the overall situation becomes ever clearer.

New research documents yet again how Sudan’s warring parties have shown what my expert colleague, Mohamed Osman, calls, “a shocking disregard for human life and dignity.”

So much of Sudan’s collapse into widespread conflict and atrocities since April last year has been happening outside the international spotlight. Other crises elsewhere may have absorbed both media and diplomatic attention, but we will keep reporting on it, drawing attention to it, and ringing alarm bells about it, as this Daily Brief has done again and again, since the beginning.

The situation in Sudan is dire, and it demands greater international action.

The latest HRW research details how the two key warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and affiliated fighters have tortured and summarily executed people in their custody. It also shows how the SAF mutilated dead bodies.

Evidence comes from expert analysis of videos and photographs. In some instances, SAF and RSF personnel filmed themselves executing and torturing detainees. 

In one incident, the SAF pushed three detainees – who appear to be children – blindfolded and shirtless, into a pit before shooting them, repeatedly, to death. In another, the RSF taunted two SAF soldiers, with one commander initially saying don’t kill them, before executing them.

In other cases, they show themselves whipping and beating detainees and forcing detainees to walk on their knees on gravel roads. 

These incidents have occurred in multiple locations in Sudan including in the capital Khartoum, in Gezira, and in North and West Kordofan states.

There are so many despicable acts described in the new research – and in previous work by HRW, by other NGOs, and by other monitoring groups – but focus for a moment on just this one point right now: the perpetrators of war crimes like torture are so sure they are going to get away with their crimes, they film themselves doing it. 

They are committing atrocities without fear of any consequences. 

Surely, this must change.

Governments and international bodies – this would include the African Union, the European Union, and others – need to work together to hold those responsible for these abuses accountable. They should impose targeted sanctions on individuals. 

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan needs to be allowed to continue doing its work. It is the only independent investigative body with the mandate to probe conflict-related violations across Sudan. That mandate comes up for renewal at the UN Human Rights Council in September.

Countries leading ceasefire and humanitarian access talks should also address the warring parties’ abuses. They should ensure that any peace deal or ceasefire arrangement comes with provisions for robust monitoring of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law – aka, the laws of war. 

The only thing worse than the lack of international attention on Sudan’s atrocities right now is the lack of justice for them. But the two things are deeply interconnected.