A senior United Nations official, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, has warned that violence against civilians in Sudan is “verging on pure evil.”
The warning comes as a humanitarian crisis in the country worsens and ethnic violence escalates in the western region of Darfur.
A war broke out in mid-April between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over plans for a political transition and the integration of the RSF into the military, four years after longtime ruler, Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in an uprising.
“We continue to receive unrelenting and appalling reports of sexual- and gender-based violence, forced disappearance, arbitrary detentions, and grave violations of human and children’s rights,” Nkweta-Salami told journalists.
“What is happening is verging on pure evil. The protection of civilians continues to be of major concern,” she said.
The UN Chief went on to say that over six million people have fled their homes and are now internally displaced within Sudan or in neighbouring countries, and that approximately 25 million people—more than half of the population—need humanitarian aid and protection.
“We have recently received disturbing reports about escalating violence and attacks against civilians, including what appears to be on an ethnic basis in Darfur,” she said.
Local and international reactions have continued to trail the conflict. According to a committee in Sudan that claims to speak for “independent lawyers,” fighting between the RSF and the army in the area of Al-Aylafoun resulted in civilian losses. The group claimed airstrikes hit the populous area where Khartoum citizens had fled, accusing the paramilitary of “looting and forced displacement of the population.”
As the RSF seized control of the main army base in the state capital of El Geneina, Sudan, people escaping to Chad have reported a fresh wave of ethnically motivated killings in West Darfur.
Due to the war, more than 6 million people have left their homes, and approximately 1.2 million of them have entered neighbouring countries, placing a tremendous strain on Sudan and their neighbours’ resources.