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UN mission suspects war criminal offenses in Sudan, calls for peacekeeping force

Both sides in Sudan's civil war have committed abuses on a large scale which might total up to war criminal activities or criminal activities against humanity, a U.N.mandated objective said on Friday, suggesting an arms embargo and a peacekeeping force to safeguard civilians.

The 19-page report by a UN Fact-Finding Mission, based upon 182 interviews with survivors, their family members and witnesses, said that both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Fast Assistance Forces (RSF) were responsible for attacks on civilians and had utilized torture and performed arbitrary arrests. The gravity of these findings underscores the urgent and immediate action to protect civilians, said the mission's chair Mohamed Chande Othman, calling for an independent and unbiased force to be released without hold-up.

The report is the three-member mission's very first considering that its production in October 2023 by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Civilians in Sudan are dealing with aggravating scarcity, mass displacement and disease after 17 months of war between the army and the RSF paramilitary.

U.S.-led arbitrators stated last month that they had protected guarantees from both parties at talks in Switzerland to enhance gain access to for humanitarian help, however that the Sudanese army's. lack from the discussions had prevented progress.

(source: Reuters)