NEW YORK: The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide on Friday said that Sudan may be nearing a tipping point for atrocities amid growing reports of widespread killings and attacks on civilians in El-Fasher.
Warning that “a threshold is about to be crossed,” Chaloka Beyani said that “once our office sounds the alarm, (it) rings over and beyond ordinary violations of human rights or of international humanitarian law.”
He said the scale of atrocities shows “there has to be early action taken.”
Beyani said there had been “massive violations of international human rights law” and “direct attacks on civilians” by warring parties in Darfur.
Graphic reports and videos that surfaced late last month appeared to show atrocities carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after they seized control of El-Fasher from government troops, ending a siege that had lasted more than 500 days.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher told the Security Council recently that “the horror is continuing” in Darfur, warning that civilians remain trapped amid widespread violence.
Beyani’s office said several risk indicators for atrocities were now present in Sudan, though only an international court could determine whether genocide had occurred.
The International Criminal Court also expressed “profound alarm” earlier this week, saying it was gathering evidence of mass killings, rapes, and other atrocities allegedly committed in El-Fasher.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that the RSF has agreed to a “humanitarian ceasefire” proposed by the US, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
The UN has warned of deteriorating conditions in North Darfur, where hundreds of thousands displaced from El-Fasher face acute shortages of food, water, and medical care. Aid agencies are setting up new camps in Tawila and other nearby areas, but more than 650,000 people remain in desperate need of assistance.
