UN rights council extends Sudan abuses probe

A South Sudanese military police officer sits on a truck while monitoring the area as troops belonging to the South Sudanese Unified Forces take part in a deployment ceremony at the Luri Military Training Centre in Juba, on Nov 15, 2023. [AFP]

The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to extend its probe into alleged rights abuses in the devastating war raging in Sudan, despite Khartoum's objections.

Twenty-three of the council's 47 member states voted to prolong the independent international fact-finding mission in Sudan, with 12 voting against and 12 abstentions.

The investigation was established by the United Nations' top rights body last October to probe all alleged human rights and international humanitarian law violations in the conflict.

Britain, Germany, Norway and the United States had proposed renewing the initial one-year mandate for another year, in a draft text slammed by Sudan's ambassador Hassan Hamid Hassan as "unjust".

Britain's ambassador Simon Manley, presenting the draft, said the fact-finding mission had documented some of the "appalling suffering" endured by Sudanese civilians in the "senseless, brutal war".

"We need independent monitoring. We need to document these atrocities. The people of Sudan need accountability," he said.

"The Sudanese authorities may not be in favour of this resolution but the Sudanese people are."

War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army (SAF) under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Sudan's Ambassador Hassan demanded a vote on the draft resolution.

"How can a resolution adopted by this council use this unjust approach that equates a national army fulfilling its role... with a rebellious militia?" he asked.

"No government would accept or tolerate such rebellions."

World's 'gravest humanitarian crisis'

Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa and the United States were among those who voted for the resolution.

Countries voting no included China, Cuba, Eritrea, Indonesia, Morocco, Qatar and Sudan itself.

Algeria, Bangladesh, India and Malaysia were among those abstaining.

"Sudan has become the gravest humanitarian crisis in the world," said US Ambassador Michele Taylor.

"Both parties to the conflict, the SAF and RSF, have committed war crimes and the RSF and its allied militias have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing."

The seriousness of the situation "demands the council's attention", she said.

Speaking for the European Union countries on the council, Belgium's envoy Christophe Payot said impunity had been a persistent feature of the conflict.

"Only if this trend can be reversed will there be a chance for a different future and a lasting peace for Sudan's people," he said.

French ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said extending the mission was "crucial".

"Our joint task must be to put this conflict back at the top of the international agenda."

The three-member fact-finding mission is chaired by Mohamed Chande Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania.

He is joined by Joy Ezeilo, emeritus dean of law at the University of Nigeria, and Mona Rishmawi of Jordan and Switzerland, a former UN independent expert on human rights in Somalia.