(Bloomberg) -- A United Nations fact-finding mission to Sudan recommended that the international community deploy an independent military force to protect civilians against “harrowing human-rights violations and international crimes.”
The Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have fighting for the past 17 months, are responsible for “large-scale violations, including indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through air strikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies,” the mission said in a statement on Friday.
“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, who chaired the mission.
An international force could be deployed under a UN resolution that allows for internationally funded peacekeeping operations to be assembled and led by the African Union, according to two officials who were briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity as they aren’t authorized to comment publicly.
The US is in favor of deploying peacekeepers, though any such move would also need the approval of all other permanent UN Security Council members, including China and Russia.
The war has destroyed the North African country’s social fabric and sparked both the world’s biggest displacement crisis and largest hunger crisis.
Efforts to mediate a ceasefire led by the US in Jeddah and more recently in Geneva failed to produce a meaningful outcome, though more aid and relief has recently entered the war-torn country from Chad through a previously blocked border crossing.
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