An independent fact-finding mission will investigate reported mass killings in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, the UN announced. The Human Rights Council today held a special session on the human rights situation in and around El Fasher. Mona Rishmawi, member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, said much of El-Fasher was now a crime scene. Some speakers expressing support for robust accountability mechanisms such as the Fact-Finding Mission and the International Criminal Court.
EL FASHER NOVEMBER 14: An independent fact-finding mission will investigate reported mass killings in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, the UN announced on Friday. More than 150,000 people have been killed and about 12 million have had no choice but to flee their homes.
The Human Rights Council today held a special session on the human rights situation in and around El Fasher, Sudan, adopting without a vote a resolution in which it requested the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan to conduct an urgent inquiry into the recent alleged violations of international law committed in and around El Fasher.
The Council requested the Fact-Finding Mission to identify, where possible, all those for whom there were reasonable grounds to believe that they were responsible for alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law and to support efforts to ensure that the perpetrators of alleged abuses were held accountable.
Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said that the atrocities that were unfolding in El Fasher were foreseen and preventable – but they were not prevented. Since the Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher, there had been mass killings of civilians; ethnically targeted executions; sexual violence, including gang rape; and other appalling atrocities.
Mona Rishmawi, member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, said much of El-Fasher was now a crime scene. The horrors unfolding in El Fasher could have been prevented, as they were the direct result of decades of impunity. They could, and must, be now stopped. Those who backed, financed and armed this machinery of brutality had the power – and the duty – to halt it. The individuals and entities behind these crimes needed to face justice.
El-Fasher was captured last month by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group following an 18-month siege. It was the last city in Darfur held by the army and its allies. The RSF has been accused of targeting non-Arab groups in the city and elsewhere in Darfur – a claim it has denied.
RSF terrorists laugh as they ride on a pick-up truck, speeding past a row of nine dead bodies and driving towards the setting Sudanese sun. “Look at all this work. Look at this genocide,” one cheers.
Some speakers said perpetrators of these violations needed to be held to account, expressing support for robust accountability mechanisms such as the Fact-Finding Mission and the International Criminal Court.
