'Tipping Point' Feared in Sudan as Atrocities Mount

Warning of potential war crimes including summary executions and deliberate attacks on civilians in Sudan, the United Nations human rights office on Tuesday issued a report calling for an expanded arms embargo and other measures to protect people caught in the crossfire of nearly two years of civil war there.

Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued the report on the conflict between Sudanese government forces and the government's former allied militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has left 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said forces on both sides of the conflict have used sexual violence as a weapon of war, with at least 203 victims affected by at least 120 documented incidents.

"Cases are likely vastly underreported due to fear, stigma, and the collapse of medical and judicial institutions," said the OHCHR.

More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes as violence has targeted civilian areas and acute food insecurity has spread across the country. Famine was declared in several refugee camps and other areas late last year, with experts projecting it would spread across war-torn northern Darfur.

Nearly 25 million people in Sudan are now suffering from "acute" levels of hunger, according to the OHCHR.

The hunger crisis is spiraling as armed forces attack civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, schools, and markets, with hundreds of civilians killed in recent weeks. More than 150,000 people have been killed since the war began, and the U.N. documented more than 4,200 civilian killings last year—noting that the actual civilian death toll is likely far higher.

On Tuesday, the rights group Emergency Lawyers reported that more than 200 civilians, including children, were killed by the RSF in White Nile state over the past three days.

"The attacks included executions, kidnapping, forced disappearance, looting, and shooting those trying to escape," the group reported.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the RSF had killed 433 people in the al-Gitaina area in White Nile, while the Preliminary Committee of Sudan Doctors' Trade Union said 300 people had been killed.

"The continued and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, as well as summary executions, sexual violence, and other violations and abuses, underscore the utter failure by both parties to respect the rules and principles of international humanitarian and human rights law," said Türk.

Li Fung, who leads the OHCHR office in Sudan, said in a video statement posted to social media that "the situation in Sudan has reached a dangerous tipping point."

"Now is the time to renew focus on the human rights crisis in Sudan and take all necessary measures to protect civilians and prevent further violations and abuses," said Fung.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the human rights office, said Tuesday's report calls for the arms embargo in place for Darfur to be expanded to all of Sudan, and for the entire country to be covered by the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

The international community, said Fung, "must stand with the people of Sudan."