UN appalled by ‘credible reports’ of civilian killings

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said he is appalled at what he described as “credible reports” of extrajudicial killings of civilians by the Sudanese army, after it recaptured the capital Khartoum last week.

In a statement Volker Türk called for a full investigation into the allegations.

He expressed his concern over the “credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces.”

Videos have been circulating for several days on social media of alleged killings of civilians by armed men, purportedly in and around Khartoum.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the footage, but the UN Human Rights Office said it believed the videos were credible evidence of abuse.

We are currently awaiting a response from the Sudanese armed forces to the allegations.

Mr Türk said his office had reviewed “multiple horrific videos showing armed men “executing civilians in cold blood, often in public settings”.

In some of the videos the perpetrators state they are punishing supporters of the RSF, he said. The army has been battling the RSF for the past two years in a civil war that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“I urge the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces to take immediate measures to put an end to arbitrary deprivation of life,” Mr Türk said, adding that “extrajudicial killings are serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

“Individual perpetrators, as well as those with command responsibility, must be held accountable for such unacceptable actions under international criminal law.”

Sudan’s army and its allied militias have been accused of human rights abuses before in areas recaptured from the RSF, in the states of Sennar, Gezira and some parts of North Kordofan.

In January, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appointed a committee to investigate alleged abuses in Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira state, although the findings are yet to be made public

The US imposed sanctions on Gen Burhan in the aftermath of the allegations in Wad Madani.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has also been sanctioned for alleged war crimes during the brutal conflict.

His forces have been accused of arresting, torturing and executing alleged army sympathizers, as well as carrying out ethnic killings in the western Darfur region.

The army has previously condemned “individual” violations committed by some soldiers when accused of human rights abuses.

The BBC reported this week on the scale of the destruction in Khartoum.

The city was held for almost two years by the RSF before being recaptured last month following an army offensive.

The RSF has vowed to continue to fight, threatening new fronts to the north of the country.