UN rights council orders urgent inquiry into Sudan's al-Obeid

The UN Human Rights Council has condemned escalating violence in Sudan's al-Obeid region, setting up an urgent inquiry into alleged abuses by the Rapid Support Forces.

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday ‌passed ​a motion condemning the escalating violence committed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan's al-Obeid region, while setting up an urgent inquiry into alleged abuses there. Britain, which brought the motion alongside 14 ‌other states, has previously warned of the risk of large-scale atrocities as the RSF massed forces around one of Sudan's largest cities, a siege that recalls the takeover of al-Fashir in North Darfur last year.

"These horrors must not be repeated," Britain’s Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders told the body. Others, ‌like South Africa's Ambassador Zaheer Laher, backed the move, calling the situation a "red alert as the Rapid Support Forces are drawing from ‌the very same genocidal playbook they used in al-Fashir."

The U.N. human rights chief warned on Friday that a "catastrophe" was unfolding around al-Obeid, and that his office had documented patterns of summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence in the surrounding region. In the past, the RSF has denied such abuses in over three years of civil war — ⁠saying ​the accounts have been manufactured by its ⁠enemies and making counter-accusations against them.

The United Nations' top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, discussed the escalating hostilities in a telephone call with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the ⁠RSF, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday. Fletcher stressed the need to maintain safe access for humanitarians and ensure the safe movement of civilians, ​while expressing concern over drone attacks affecting civilians and the infrastructure they rely on, Dujarric said. Denise Brown, the U.N.'s resident humanitarian coordinator, wrapped ⁠up a mission on Sunday to al-Obeid to engage with partners on the aid response and assess the impact of attacks on civilians, he added.

The U.N. rights council's ⁠motion ​was adopted by consensus although China disassociated itself from the decision, saying it did not support investigations that target individual countries without their backing. Others said the motion should have done more to name actors they say are fuelling the conflict by supplying weapons including drones, instead ⁠of merely alluding to "external support".

"The council failed to fully seize the moment," said African rights group DefendDefenders, referring to what it called sustained UAE ⁠sup­port to the RSF. Sudan's army-aligned government ⁠has also accused the UAE of arming the group, which has been fighting the Sudanese army in the civil war.

The UAE has repeatedly denied such accusations, though U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have found ‌evidence of UAE military support ‌credible.