The fact-finding mission, included in a draft resolution, would also seek to identify the perpetrators of violations allegedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies in El-Fasher.
In an opening address to delegates, the UN human rights chief urged the international community to act. “There has been too much pretence and performance, and too little action. It must stand up against these atrocities - a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population,” UN High Commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said.
The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.
Turk also called for action against individuals and companies “fuelling and profiting” from the war in Sudan, and gave a stark warning about surging violence in the central Sudanese region of Kordofan, with bombardments, blockades and people forced from their homes. Kordofan is a region comprising three states that serves as a buffer between the RSF’s western Darfur strongholds and the army-held states in the east.
The fall of El-Fasher to the RSF on October 26 cemented its control of the Darfur region in the more than 2-1/2-year civil war with the Sudanese army. The draft text up for consideration by the council, seen by Reuters, strongly condemns the reported ethnically motivated killing by the RSF and allied forces in El-Fasher.
Mona Rishmawi a member of the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan described examples of rape, killing and torture and said a comprehensive investigation is required to establish the full picture.
She said RSF forces had “turned El-Fasher University into a killing ground” where thousands of civilians had been sheltering. Witnesses also recounted seeing bodies piling in the streets and trenches dug in and around the city, Rishmawi said.
The proposed resolution stops short of mandating an investigation into the role of external actors who may be supporting the RSF, which the ambassador to the permanent mission of Sudan in Geneva criticised, saying that his country faced an “existential war” following the international community’s failure to act.
The United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway and Ghana expressed support for the resolution, strongly condemning the violence in Sudan, which they warned could threaten regional stability. The resolution also calls for the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to allow life-saving aid to reach the many people who may still be trapped inside the famine-struck city. Women fleeing the city have reported killings while others have described civilians being shot in the streets and attacked in drone strikes.