Diplomats and senior UN figures speaking at the UN security council have condemned mass killings by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher after the Sudanese city “descended into an even darker hell” following the paramilitary group’s takeover at the weekend.
Widespread reports of ethnically targeted killings in recent days prompted the UK, as the UN penholder on Sudan, to call an emergency session of the security council in New York on Thursday.
“The situation is simply horrifying,” Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, the assistant secretary general of the UN for Africa, told the meeting. “In the past week, the UN human rights office has documented widespread and serious human rights violations in and around El Fasher. These include credible reports of mass killings in various locations and summary executions during house-to-house searches and as civilians have tried to flee the city.
“Communications have been cut off. The situation is chaotic. In this context, it is difficult to estimate the number of civilians killed. Despite commitments to protect civilians, the reality is that no one is safe in El Fasher. There is no safe passage for civilians to leave the city.”
Pobee added: “External support is enabling the conflict. Weapons and fighters continue to flow into Sudan, further contributing to the already desperate situation.”
Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told the meeting: “El Fasher, already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering, has descended into an even darker hell.”
Fletcher condemned the reported killing of nearly 500 people at the Saudi maternity hospital and said tens of thousands were fleeing to Tawila, where civilians, mostly women and children, faced extortion, violence and abduction.
In a statement, the security council said recent developments in El Fasher had had a devastating impact on the civilian population and that council members “condemned reported atrocities being perpetrated by the RSF against the civilian population, including summary executions and arbitrary detentions”.
The UN session was likely to be uncomfortable for the United Arab Emirates, the RSF’s key external backer, but diplomatic calls for the UN to recognise it had a responsibility to protect people from a deliberate genocide, as opposed to merely condemning a breach of international humanitarian law, were sparse.
In the UK, the Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs in the House of Commons: “The reports of mass atrocities against civilians and the forced displacement caused by the RSF advances in El Fasher are both horrifying and deeply alarming.”
Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, called for a ban on all UK arms sales to the UAE until it was proven that any such previous exports had not been transferred to Sudan for use by the RSF.
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that British military equipment used by the RSF had been found on battlefields in Sudan, according to documents seen by the UN security council.
Doughty admitted UK-made military equipment had been found in Sudan but distinguished “items” from “weaponry”, telling MPs: “We are aware of reports of a small number of UK-made items having been found in Sudan, but there is no evidence in the recent reporting of UK weapons or ammunition being used in Sudan.”
The UAE has repeatedly denied allegations it gives military support to the RSF.
Kate Ferguson, a co-director of Protection Approaches, a UK charity working to tackle identity-based violence and mass atrocities, said: “We need an emergency coalition of conscience to drive an immediate global effort to protect civilians and end the atrocities – and demonstrate to the UAE that enabling deliberate destruction of populations is not tolerated.
“In the face of countless warnings, the international community has failed to uphold its collective responsibilities to protect El Fasher from genocide.”
Human Rights Watch called for targeted sanctions to be imposed on the UAE leadership, while the US Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen called on his fellow senators to pass his bill banning US arms sales to the UAE.
Last month the Quad – an external group comprising the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, responsible for overseeing diplomacy surrounding the conflict – outlined a roadmap for peace but it has not been implemented.
It called for an initial three-month humanitarian truce to allow for rapid aid delivery, followed by a permanent ceasefire, and concluding with a nine-month transitional period leading to “an independent, civilian-led government with broad-based legitimacy and accountability”.
