UN Condemns RSF for Atrocities in El Fasher, Urges for Accountability

(MENAFN) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday held Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies fully accountable for a series of "atrocities" in El Fasher, describing the events as a "preventable human rights catastrophe," according to reports.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Turk said that after 18 months of siege, starvation, and bombardment, the RSF unleashed "intense violence" in the city, killing thousands and displacing tens of thousands more. Survivors reported mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence, torture, abductions for ransom, and attacks on healthcare personnel.

"The threat was clear, but warnings were not heeded. Responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies squarely with the RSF and their allies and supporters," Turk said. "The international community must do better. If we stand by, wringing our hands while armies and armed groups commit well-flagged international crimes, we can only expect worse to come," he added.

Turk, who recently visited Sudan and eastern Chad, noted that his office had interviewed over 140 victims and witnesses. Survivors described systematic sexual violence, attacks targeting non-Arab ethnic groups, and shocking scenes including piles of bodies along roads leaving the city.

Children were reportedly recruited by the RSF, and thousands of civilians remain missing, detained under inhumane conditions, or transferred to prisons such as Tagris in South Darfur.

Turk also warned that similar violations could occur in Sudan’s Kordofan region, where fighting has intensified following the fall of El Fasher.

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