UN rights chief warns of ethnically motivated ‘atrocities’ in Sudan’s El-Fasher
Volker Turk said ‘urgent and concrete action’ was needed to protect civilians as paramilitary forces said they had taken control of the city
The UN rights chief warned on Monday that the Sudanese city of El-Fasher was in an “extremely precarious situation”, with the likelihood of “ethnically-motivated violations and atrocities” rising after paramilitary forces claimed control.
Since May 2024, El-Fasher has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting a brutal war with Sudan’s army for more than two years.
The RSF said on Sunday it had seized full control of El-Fasher, the last major city in the vast western Darfur region not in its hands, in a potential turning point in the country’s unrelenting civil war.
“The risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in El-Fasher is mounting by the day,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned in a statement.
He called for “urgent and concrete action … to ensure the protection of civilians in El-Fasher and safe passage for those trying to reach relative safety”.
Turk said his office had received reports of summary executions of civilians trying to flee, with indications of ethnic motivations for killings.