Sudanese civil society call for urgent civilian protection as fighting intensifies

Sudanese civilians need an urgent multifaceted protection approach from the international community as the war in Sudan intensifies and the warring parties show little interest in peace talks, local civil society groups said on Wednesday.

Entire communities are bearing the brunt of the year and a half long conflict that has raged across the country and triggered record displacement and human rights atrocities, including widespread allegations of ethnic killings and sexual violence.

Sudanese civil society groups have said that the international community must coordinate to end a culture of impunity that has seen the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) wreak havoc in provinces across the massive African country.

RSF shelling and Sudanese army ground and aerial attacks have destroyed towns and cities, entrapping civilians and damaging health facilities and disrupting humanitarian missions, according to reports from activists and human rights groups.

Darfur, the country’s largest western province, has been embroiled in battles as the RSF has fought to seize Sudanese army-controlled areas over the past four months.

Escalating violence towards civilians

Ikhlas Ahmed, advocacy program officer at Darfur Advocacy Group, warned that civilians in Darfur are facing some of the biggest threats to safety.

“Over the past month we have seen escalation in violence that has put millions of people’s lives at risk,” Ahmed said during an online media briefing on Sudan hosted by campaign group Avaaz on Wednesday.

Ahmed highlighted the “indiscriminate attacks” from the RSF including bombing and shelling that she said does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Army air strikes have been reported in Al Jazira state where they are in fierce combat with the RSF, as well as in the capital Khartoum in recent days.

More than 19,000 civilians have been killed in Darfur, Khartoum and other regions. Forced displacement and sexual violence are amongst the biggest dangers facing those innocents displaced by or caught up in the war.

Ahmed said that women and children are facing danger even in supposedly safe displacement camps, where they are vulnerable to exploitation.

Over 300 cases of sexual violence have been recorded since the conflict began, Ahmed said, adding that the real number is likely to be much higher due to underreporting.

The country is facing an acute hunger crisis as well as disease outbreaks with nearly 25 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the latest UN OCHA report.

‘Culture of impunity’

The nineteen-month long war has been characterised by successive reports of human rights violations on the part of the RSF militia and the Sudanese army.

The war began in April 2023 and followed a series of horrific human rights episodes in Sudan, including the Darfur genocide from 2003 to 2005.

Ahmed noted that a “culture of impunity” has created a huge problem where “perpetrators know they can act” without penalty. She said that the international community’s neglect on holding party’s accountable has allowed atrocities to continue unchecked throughout the current conflict.

Khalid Mishain from the Sudanese Youth Citizen Observatory Network also said that this has created dangerous conditions for civilians.

Mishain and Ahmed called for stronger coordination among international and regional players, including UN member states and the Africa Union. The activists also suggested a joint military-police taskforce on the ground in Sudan led by the international community.

There have been previous internationally mandated taskforces in Sudan. The United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was deployed after the Darfur genocide in 2007 as a combined solider and police force to protect civilians until 2023.

The United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission (UNITAMS) was a three year long political mission from 2020 to 2023.

Sudanese policy specialists note that there are lessons to be learnt from these two missions, which have been criticised by some observers in the wake of the outbreak of latest civil war.

As the international community looks for peace building measures in the current conflict, activists noted that the large size of Sudan remains a major barrier to the deployment of a peacekeeping force with an emphasis instead on the need for localised missions.

Additionally, conditions in Sudan are not yet ready for a peacekeeping force as certain criteria must be met, including for both parties to agree to an international force in the country.

Protection measures for civilians

Last month the United Nations Human Rights Council published its findings from fact finding mission conducted from January to August 2024 investigating human rights abuses and violations of international law related to the war.

The report found that the warring parties had committed a plethora of abuses that may qualify as war crimes, including direct attacks on civilians, sexual violence and arbitrary detention.

Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission said that the “gravity” of the findings underscored an immediate need to protect civilians.

“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay,” Othman said.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the Secretary-General’s recommendations for the protection of civilians in Sudan next week.