UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC56 - Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan

Madam President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I'm honoured to present an update on the process on the progress made by the Independent International Fake Finding Mission for the Sudan, which I refer to as FFM Sudan, in accordance with Human Rights Council's Resolution 54 slash 2.

I present this briefing as the chairperson of the mission and I'm joined by my two other colleagues, Mona Rishwami enjoying Ozil Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating conflict for over a year now, characterised largely by its urban, widespread nature and its civilian population placed at the centre of extreme violence.

Blatant disregard for fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law has led to killings, looting, mass displacement, **** and other forms of sexual violence and resulted in a grave humanitarian crisis, with around 18 million people acutely food insecure and 5 million facing starvation, according to the West World Food Programme.

My colleagues and I are deeply aware of the urgency of the situation.

Since our appointment in December 2023, we have been doing our utmost to fulfil the mandate of this Council has bestowed upon us the liquidity crisis faced by the United Nations Secretariat and the hiring fees unfortunately led to several months of delay in establishing an effective Secretariat.

We are pleased that thanks to the special efforts of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights and the Deputy **** Commissioner last month, the Secretariat has finally began its work in Nairobi, Kenya.

We thank the Government of Kenya for hosting this mandate.

At this point, on board are about 2/3 of the staff contingent that were considered necessary by the General Assembly to to fulfil and to fully implement the mandate.

It is imperative for us to have adequate resources in order to effectively deliver.

This does not mean that we are starting the work only now.

First, with thanks to the flexibility and commitment of the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Right, a small number of experienced staff in Geneva was allocated to us from the beginning, which enabled us to start operations.

Therefore, from the outset of the mandate, we published a call inviting individuals, group and organisation to submit information and documentation relevant to the mandate.

Second, we have initiated context with the Government of Sudan and with governments of neighbouring states, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Central African Republic as well as Kenya and Uganda requesting their cooperation acts through their territories in order to gather first hand information from victims of the conflict, including those who have fled Sudan since the outbreak of the violence.

Kenya has responded positively.

Even we've been able to carry out visits to Nairobi where we met with a number of victim witnesses and experts.

We are pleased to have received confirmation from the Government of Chad that they're also willing to receive us soon for a visit this councils mechanism.

We are particularly keen to visit Sudan and interact with the government to hear also their perspectives.

We also note that the Rapid Support Forces, as expressed through the President of the Council, their willingness to cooperate with this mandate.

Thirdly, we have engaged with organisation and entities involved in the situation in Sudan, including the **** Commissioner, his office, his designated expert on the situation of human right in Sudan, the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General in Sudan and other UN senior officials.

We also have had a constructive dialogue with the Sudan country Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human People's Rights and have reached out to the African Union, the League of Arab States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, with a request for dialogue and cooperation, the main purpose being to coordinate our efforts and to assure complementarity.

Fourthly, even without physical access, Sudan Sudan, The Fake Finding Mission has been able to conduct about 80 direct interviews so far, including with victims and eyewitnesses.

We also held meetings and consultations with a considerable number of stakeholders including civil society representative, human right defenders, journalist, academics and specialised experts on child rights and sexual and gender based violence.

We thank all these individuals and organisations for their constructive cooperation and submission of relevant information.

We are particularly grateful to the many Sudanese victim witnesses and human rights defenders who have courageously shared the in insight, sometimes at great significant risk for their safety and security.

We would like to remind the warring parties that any act of intimidation or reprisal for cooperation with the United Nations is prohibited and will be duly recorded in accordance with our Mandate Excellencies.

The information that we have gathered so far indicates that the deadly conflict that began in Sudan on 5th of April 2023, mainly between the Sudan Armed Forces and RSF, is continuing unabated on a massive scale.

It now involves multiple actors within and outside Sudan and has spread from Khartoum and Darfur to most of the countries.

We are deeply concerned that the fighting persists with tragic consequences and a normal suffering of the civilian population.

We have received credible accounts of indiscriminate attacks against civilians, civilian objects, including through air strikes and shelling in heavily populated residential areas, and resident ground attacks against civilians in their homes and villages in the capital Khartoum and his close vicinity, Hamdurman and Bahari.

An outbreak.

The outbreak of the conflict, the intense glaciers, airstrikes and heavy arterial shelling, including residential areas and attacks on schools, hospital and medical facilities, resulted in killings and injuries of civilians, including women and children, and forced many to leave their homes and property to seek refuge in other locations.

Reports of looting and sexual violence have added to this exodus.

We are particularly concerned about the situation in Darfur, especially the siege of Al Fascia N Darfur by RSF.

Al Fascia, as you know, is the capital of Darfur with about 1.5 million inhabitants.

It's hosts approximately 800,000 internally displaced persons.

Already heavy fighting between the warring faction in different parts of the city has led to significant division, casualties, damaged homes and cause mass displacement.

They had taken one of the main and last functioning hospital in the city on 8th of June, led to its closure, leaving the civilian population without access to life saving medical care.

We call our own parties to abide by Security resolution 2720362024, which demands that the RSF halt the siege of El Fascia and calls for an immediate halting to the fighting.

The Security Council resolution also called for the protection of all civilians and the foreign parties to allow and facilitate rapid, safe, unhindered and sustained passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need, including by removing bureaucratic and other impediments.

We call on all parties to heed the security counters.

Call on the parties to reopen the Adre border crossing for the delivery of Mediterranean assistance.

We further call upon all States to abide by the Security Council of Arms embargo on imposed on their full pass on to Resolution 1556 of 2004.

We also note the call of the Prosecutor of the ICC for information regarding this unfolding situation and urge all parties it is to fully cooperate with his office.

Previous attacks on other areas compound our concern.

We are currently investigating earlier large scale attacks against civilians based on the ethnicity in other areas of Darfur and that have included killings, **** and other forms of sexual violence, torture, forced displacement and looting, including in Gennena and later in Ardamata between April and November last year.

Ethnic based attacks are also under investigation, including in Zalinji, Nyala and other areas of Darfur, as well as in Cordofan, Al Jazeera and parts of Greater Khartoum.

With regard to the situation in Al Jazeera, we're investigating attacks including on its capital word Madani in December 2323 and related killings, injury, obituary and torture of civilians and mass displacement.

Recently, on 5th of June, Waded Noora village in Al Jazeera was reported to have been attacked with large and heavy artillery in leading to hundreds of civilian deaths including numerous children.

In all these areas, massive looting and extensive destruction of civilian homes and property continue.

Additionally, health facilities have been attacked, pillaged, and destroyed, making it impossible for many injured civilians to get any medical attention.

Medical supplies have also been blocked from reaching critical areas.

There are reports that many civilians have died from injuries sustained in the conflict due to the unavailability or inexcusability of medical supplies.

The conflict also led to significant damage of essential infrastructure, including electricity and water supply lines, as well as as communication networks.

It takes on medical personnel, including those providing support to victims of social sexual violence, are highly disturbing.

The conflict continues to cause mass displacement of the civilian population at unprecedented levels.

Since the breaking of the conflict, almost 9 million individuals have been forcefully displaced from their homes, with more than 1.8 million fleeing to neighbouring countries.

We heard from victims how they had to take a long and perilous journey from Khartoum all the way to Egypt, Kenya or Uganda, sometimes crossing multiple countries in attempt to escape the brutal conflict.

Others were forcibly evicted from their homes by warring parties.

Most left nothing and treble for several weeks to seek safety.

We appreciate the efforts of the countries who, despite their limited resources, continue to support the refugees who have fled the conflict.

In Sudan, nearly 18,000,000 individuals are facing acute hunger amidst looming famine.

At least 5 million civilians, including children and pregnant women are at risk of starvation with a minimum response as wearing infections continue to obstruct humanitarian assets, attack humanitarian workers and loot humanitarian supplies, thereby curtailing delivery of licencing support to vulnerable population.

In face of this immense suffering, the humanitarian response, which remains largely underfunded with only 616% of the required funds having been received, required urgent international attention.

We've also received credible reports of many cases of sexual violence being committed by war infections parties across various parts of the country.

Since the start of the conflict, women and girls have been and continue to be subjected to **** and gang ****, abduction and forced marriage.

Victims and first line responders told us of how women and girls not only endured violent ****, including gang **** and denial of medical support, but also how they were stigmatised and subsequently abandoned by their families.

There are reports of sexual slavery and sexualized torture in detention facilities, including against men and boys, which we are investigating.

The majority of survivors have not had access to adequate support due to lack of access to or unavailability of health facilities and the destruction of the health infrastructure.

Medical personnel and members of civil society are prevented from or targeted for providing support to victims of social violence.

Widespread recruitment and use of children at checkpoints to gather intelligence, as well as to perpetrate in direct combat and commit violent crimes are also frequently reported, placing the lives and future of many children at risk.

In his report of 3rd of June 2024 on children and armed conflict, the UN Secretary General ranked Sudan among the countries with the highest number of grave violations against children being reported committed by several warring for faction including the Sudan Armed Forces and RSF.

There are also credible reports of mass arbitrary arrests of civilians based on suspicion of supporting the other party to the conflict, expressing dissent or supporting human rights, and a return to democratic transition.

From the outset of the conflict, the warring parties appear to have been targeting resistance committee members, medical emergencies, room volunteers, lawyers, journalists, civil society actors, and human rights activists, and subjected them to threats, attacks, arbitrary arrest, torture, detention, and forced disappearance and killings.

Excellence.

Our mandate also requires us to examine, and this is unique, the root causes of all alleged violation and abuses of human right in international humanitarian law and related crimes.

We have so far identified a number of structural and systematic issues and whether those related to policies and conduct this include continued arming of civilians without meaningful control, the mobilisation, registration of militias and armed groups on an ethnic basis and the shielding from accountability those persons and entities responsible for atrocious crimes.

Some of these practises are being revived by the warring parties from past conflicts and are laying the ground for current and future cycles of serious violation.

The national legal system appears unable to conduct prompt, independent and credible investigation or to could persons in a manner consistent with international human rights norms and standards.

It is therefore crucial to combat impunity.

Your Excellencies, it is hard to see human rights and the humanitarian situation in Sudan improve without an immediate ceasefire.

We note the Security Council's call on 8th of May by the resolution 2724 for the immediate secession of our seals in Sudan during the month of Ramadan without a veil.

Regrettably, the fighting never stopped and continues with full intensity until now, three months later.

While appealing for the fighting to stop immediately, we need we need the commanders of warring parties to issue instruction to the forces of militia under their control to strictly abide by the international military law.

By their international obligation, and also as iterated in the Jeddah Declaration, civilians must be protected and the guest exam, including killings, looting, sexual violations and forced displacement, must be punished in conformity with international humanitarian and human rights law.

We further call upon warring parties to refrain from attacking humanitarian workers, stop obstructing the delivery of aid, allow and allow unfettered humanitarian access to the millions of civilians in need in every part of Sudan.

We also appeal to states with influence over any of the warring parties to urgently step up efforts to hold the fighting and bring the parties back to the negotiating table in order to prevent fire violations and abuses.

As this update demonstrates, the people of the Sudan are crying for help to restore their dignity and rights.

They need the support and the attention of this Council.

Thank you very much.