AI and Activists Denounce Crisis in Sudan (2024)

Amnesty International published a petition to be signed with the purpose of putting more pressure on the UN Security Council in order to impose an arms embargo in Sudan.

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“Join us in our call on the UN Security Council to stop the flow of weapons into Sudan and alleviate the suffering of civilians,” AI said denouncing that “the horrific situation that the Sudanese people are forced to live in is not an inevitable fate."

“There are things the international community can do to ensure that civilians are protected and do not continue to bear the brunt of this conflict,” AI added.

Amnesty researcher Abdullah Hassan confirmed that both sides of the conflict committed serious violations against civilians that led to the killing and wounding of huge numbers of the Sudanese. He grouped the types of violations into four types, including attacks by air and attacks by ground missiles, pointing out that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took shelter with civilians, causing them enormous damage.

Hassan stated that the RSF and the Arab militias allied with them targeted specific ethnic groups in West Darfur, noting that he met many of them in Chad in June last year, and heard from them “the violations they were subjected to, including killing, wounding, and burning entire villages.”

Hassan said at the forum organized by Amnesty in cooperation with the Sudanese Democracy First Group and the International Film Festival for Non-Governmental Organizations in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday, that the third type of violations is sexual violence that affected all conflict states in Darfur, Khartoum, and the Gezira.

The Amnesty International researcher confirmed that most of the violations were committed by members of the RSF, in addition to reports confirming that soldiers from the Sudanese Armed Forces also committed rapes. He added: “Rape victims do not find any medical support.”

Hassan said that the fourth type of violations is theft, which includes the theft of humanitarian aid, homes, and universities in all areas affected by the war.

He asserted that impunity since the Darfur war crimes - which broke out in 2003 - is the main reason for their recurrence, pointing out that the perpetrators of violations in the Darfur war are the same ones who killed peaceful demonstrators in the Sudanese revolution in 2019. These forces are the same ones who carried out the October 25 coup, and now they are the ones leading this conflict.

While the human right researcher expressed his disappointment at not providing sufficient aid to the fact-finding mission for Sudan, he stressed that the international community is failing Sudan not only by not providing adequate humanitarian aid, but also by its negligence in not providing sufficient aid to the mission.

For her part, Director of Internews organization in Sudan, Yusra Saber, said that the military coup in October 2021 cut off the path to peaceful transition and led to the April war.

She pointed out that the reason was due to the Bashir regime’s use of militias to fight the armed movements in Darfur, then their development from the Janjaweed to their obtaining a special law in 2017, where finally they gained their independence through the decision issued by Al-Burhan to delete Article 5 of the RSF Law, which freed them from subordination to the armed forces.

Saber stressed that there is no victorious party in the current war, noting that the violations that occurred in Gezira State are no different from what happened in El Geneina. She warned that there are no safe areas in Sudan right now.

The director of Internews in Sudan confirmed that the current war had turned into a comprehensive civil war due to the spread of hate speech and weapons. She said: “Even if the generals decide to stop the war, it will be difficult for them to convince those behind it.”

She pointed out that the Internet service continued during the war, while it was cut off during peaceful demonstrations, stressing the need of the parties to the conflict for Internet services in order to spread their war propaganda.

Saber called for the necessity of civilians participating in negotiations to stop the war because they are the sector affected by the continuation of the war.

From his side; The Sudanese doctor, Al-Shafi’ Muhammad Ahmed, accused international humanitarian organizations of deliberately ignoring the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, revealing that he was in Al-Jazira State, which he left a month and a half ago without seeing any foreign organizations or government initiatives to provide humanitarian aid to those fleeing the war in Khartoum to Al-Jazira.

Ahmed expressed his concern and sadness at the spread of hunger in the largest agricultural state in Sudan, stressing the need of 18 million Sudanese pounds for urgent food aid, saying: “The Sudanese crisis is not forgotten, but it has been ignored.”