UN rights council adopts fact-finding mission in emergency session on Sudan

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution for an independent fact-finding mission to investigate reported mass killings in al-Fashir, Sudan.

At a special session of the Council in Geneva on the situation in the city in Darfur which fell to paramilitary forces in October, the text passed without a vote - a strong sign of international support.

The fact-finding mission will also seek to identify the perpetrators of violations allegedly committed by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies in al-Fashir.

The ambassador of the permanent mission of the United Kingdom in Geneva said the fact-finding mission would document and preserve evidence of violations, which would lay the ground for future justice and accountability.

In an opening address to delegates, the U.N. human rights chief urged the international community to act.

"There has been too much pretence and performance, and too little action. It must stand up against these atrocities – a display of naked cruelty used to subjugate and control an entire population," U.N. High Commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said.

The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.

UN RIGHTS CHIEF WARNS OF SURGING VIOLENCE IN KORDOFAN

Turk also called for action against individuals and companies "fuelling and profiting" from the war in Sudan, and gave a stark warning about surging violence in the central Sudanese region of Kordofan, with bombardments, blockades and people forced from their homes.

Kordofan is a region comprised of three states that serves as a buffer between the RSF's western Darfur strongholds and the army-held states in the east.

The fall of al-Fashir to the RSF on October 26 cemented its control of the Darfur region in the more than 2-1/2-year civil war with the Sudanese army.

The draft text up for consideration by the council, seen by Reuters, strongly condemns the reported ethnically motivated killing and use of rape as a weapon of war by the RSF and allied forces in al-Fashir.

Mona Rishmawi, a member of the U.N.'s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan described examples of rape, killing and torture and said a comprehensive investigation is required to establish the full picture.

She said RSF forces had "turned Al Fasher University into a killing ground" where thousands of civilians had been sheltering. Witnesses also recounted seeing bodies piling in the streets and trenches dug in and around the city, Rishmawi said.

The proposed resolution stops short of mandating an investigation into the role of external actors who may be supporting the RSF, which the ambassador to the permanent mission of Sudan in Geneva criticised, saying that his country faced an "existential war" following the international community's failure to act.

"We were warning all over the U.N....calling for pressure on the rebel militia and the country that is sponsoring it with military equipment - I mean the UAE," Hassan Hamid Hassan said.

UAE VIGOROUSLY DENIES SUPPORT FOR RSF

Sudan's army has accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying the RSF with weapons, a claim which U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have found credible. The UAE ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Jamal Al Musharakh on Thursday categorically rejected claims that it provides support in any form to either of the warring parties.

The United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway and Ghana expressed support for the resolution, strongly condemning the violence in Sudan, which they warned could threaten regional stability.

The resolution also calls for the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to allow life-saving aid to reach the many people who may still be trapped inside the famine-struck city.

Women fleeing the city have reported killings and systematic rape while others have described civilians being shot in the streets and attacked in drone strikes.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, additional reporting by Emme Farge; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Sharon Singleton)