‘The land is valuable, and it will be easier to seize it if the buildings have been destroyed by war.’
This was the reaction of a CSW source to the bombing of churches and properties in Omdurman and Khartoum El-Shajara in Sudan at the start of the month.
On 1 November the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) shelled and completely destroyed a church that was used by the Episcopal and Evangelical denominations in Omdurman. It was the largest and second oldest church in the area, and its destruction came just three weeks after the Evangelical Commercial School and the Evangelical Secondary School were also bombed.
Two days later, in the Khartoum El Shajara neighbourhood, five nuns and several children were injured in the bombing of a building belonging to the Comboni Catholic missionary order known as Mariam Home.
Attacks on civilians have been commonplace in Sudan ever since violence erupted between the SAF and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, days before the two forces were due to merge in line with an internationally supported framework agreement on a transition to democracy.
On 10 September for example, at least 40 civilians were killed and dozens were injured in an SAF airstrike on a market in southern Khartoum. The SAF denied responsibility, accusing the RSF of carrying out the attack. Regardless of the lack of evidence for that particular claim, there is no doubt that both forces are responsible for extensive and egregious violence and human rights violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The RSF is in control of most of the capital, Khartoum, and has occupied, looted and destroyed homes, public buildings and places of worship across the city. It also holds West and South Darfur, where there have been reports of mass graves, summary executions, attacks on civilian infrastructure and burned villages amid a campaign of violence and ethnic cleansing. The RSF’s control of these regions has also facilitated greater access to weapons from external actors, which has in turn enabled it to strengthen its operations.
Last month the militia made advances towards Gezira state in the south, displacing thousands of residents from the town of Ailafoun, and notably shelling a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on 9 October, killing two people.
In August, UN experts raised concerns at reports of widespread sexual violence, which has been repeatedly attributed to the RSF. The number of victims is unknown; however, the true figure is likely to be higher than any published estimates as the number of disappeared women and girls continues to rise.
Both the RSF and the SAF are currently involved in peace negotiations in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; however, the violence shows no sign of abating, and even if a ceasefire is reached there will remain an urgent need for the international community to ensure that it is upheld, and indeed that both warring parties are held to account for the violations and abuses they have committed against the Sudanese people both during this conflict and before it.
The situation in Sudan is one of many pressing issues that must be addressed by the international community as a matter of urgency, alongside the war in Ukraine, fears of genocide in Gaza, and indeed many other serious humanitarian and human rights crises that CSW works on directly, such as those in Myanmar, Tigray and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
But even with the international community’s attention as divided as it is, it must do all it can to ensure that the plight of the people of Sudan does not slip off the agenda. That is why the establishment of a UN-mandated international independent fact-finding mission for the country just last month is a welcome step in the right direction.
The mission will greatly increase the international community’s ability to hold the RSF, the SAF and other warring parties to account for their extensive crimes, and may also provide a degree of deterrence. As such, UN Member States must ensure that the mandate is well-supported, and beyond that they must do all in their power to bring a decisive end to the current crisis so that Sudan might finally move towards the future of democracy and inclusivity that so many had hoped for following the deposal of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
Most of all, the international community must ensure that any efforts to broker peace include a broad and significant civil society component that guides the country to a durable solution based on an inclusive Sudanese identity, rule of law, human rights and, most importantly, accountability, including for any international actor found to have resourced either side of the conflict with additional weapons.
By CSW’s Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley