Over the past six months, Sudan has become a landscape of “unspeakable scale of destruction and criminality,” escalating the suffering of the Sudanese people, said Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan. In Darfur, he said, international crimes are being committed on a wide scale, in real-time, and atrocities are committed daily as a weapon of war.
Unfortunately, there are no heroes to come to the rescue of the people of Sudan.
“Since the renewed outbreak of hostilities in April 2023, combatants have directed shocking cruelty and violence toward defenseless Sudanese,” said U.S. Chargé d’Affairs ad interim at the UN, Dorothy Shea.
“The brutal conflict has resulted in the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, leaving 638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead.”
“The United States does not support either side in this war. Both belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering in Sudan,” said Ambassador Shea.
“The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” said Ambassador Shea.
“Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies,” she said.
“The other belligerent, the Sudanese Armed Forces has also committed war crimes in Sudan. The SAF has committed lethal attacks on civilians, including widespread bombing of civilian infrastructure including schools, markets, hospitals, and they’ve committed torture and extrajudicial executions.”
“Those responsible for these terrible crimes must be held accountable,” yet “many responsible for atrocities over 20 years ago in Sudan remain at large,” said Ambassador Shea.
“We urge the international community to work to bring those individuals to trial so they can be publicly held to account for their alleged crimes. The failure to achieve accountability decades ago is one reason conflict continues to burn.”
“The United States will continue to lead efforts to bring this conflict to an end,” said Ambassador Shea.
“The horrific acts of violence committed by the SAF and the RSF must end. The warring parties must allow humanitarian [assistance] to flow to Sudan’s civilian population. It is long past time to halt the killing, and to empower the Sudanese people in their pursuit of a peaceful and prosperous future.”
