Published on: 2026-06-15
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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In Sudan, the crisis in the protection of civilians is rapidly escalating: both warring sides are increasingly using arbitrary detentions, torture, and disappearances of people. This was warned on Monday by the International Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan, which presented its updated report to the UN Human Rights Council.
According to the chairman of the Mohamed Chande Othman mission, violations of international humanitarian law committed by Sudanese armed forces, rapid response forces, and their allies have become systematic and can be classified as crimes against humanity. “Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war. Repression and terror penetrate all spheres of life,” he said.
The mission records mass detentions of people considered loyal to the opponent by one side. Crossing from the control zone of one side to the other zone has effectively become a crime: people are detained, beaten, and accused of collaborating with the enemy at checkpoints. Journalists, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, activists, and ordinary citizens are subjected to torture, searches, and death threats. People are increasingly forced to publicly demonstrate loyalty to one of the conflict parties.
Human rights defenders are particularly alarmed by the practice of ransom payments: Rapid response forces demand tens of thousands of dollars from families for the release of detainees. This destroys local economies, intensifies hunger, and fuels the shadow “war economy.”
In May of this year, Rapid Response Forces detained at least 70 people in the city of El-Geneina, including humanitarian workers. The fate of these people remains unknown to this day.
Sudanese armed forces, in turn, continue to persecute political opponents, lawyers, journalists, and activists, accusing them of ties with the enemy. The UN mission is aware of torture, repeated judicial persecution after acquittal, denial of access to lawyers, and coercion to make confessions. One of the most egregious cases is the arrest and torture of a lawyer from Sindj, subsequently sentenced to death without notifying the defense.
The conditions of detention on both sides of the front threaten the lives of detainees: this refers to overcrowded cells, lack of water, food, and medical assistance, outbreaks of cholera, and prolonged isolation from the outside world. In prisons controlled by Rapid Reaction Forces, mass cases of violence and sexual crimes are recorded. According to UN mission data, Sudanese armed forces also use sexualized torture.
The mission emphasizes that the absence of independent observers in places of detention exacerbates the suffering of families and contributes to impunity. Human rights defenders have called on both sides to immediately cease arbitrary detentions, release all those unlawfully held, ensure humane treatment, and disclose the fate of the missing.
“The scale and systemic nature of the violations require an urgent international response and the establishment of real mechanisms of accountability,” Otman stated, emphasizing the necessity of cooperation with the International Criminal Court and the creation of an independent judicial mechanism to investigate crimes throughout the territory of Sudan.
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