July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The European Union has made this Friday an appeal to the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to facilitate the search, collection and evacuation of the bodies of those killed in the conflict.
Brussels has also condemned recent United Nations reports that around 90 people have been buried in a mass grave in the western Sudanese province of West Darfur, possibly with RSF involvement.
“The EU also recalls that everyone has an obligation to cooperate with the investigations of the International Criminal Court into this atrocity and all crimes committed during the current hostilities,” the European Union added in a statement.
The Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF paramilitaries have been immersed in conflict for almost four months, to which the EU has condemned the refusal of both parties to “seek a peaceful solution” to the situation.
“A lasting ceasefire must be negotiated without delay to guarantee the protection of the people of Sudan, whose security is in danger. All those responsible for violations of Human Rights and infringements of international law (…) must be held accountable,” he concluded. The EU.
The current hostilities broke out in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF into the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition open after the 2019 overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, damaged by the October 2021 coup, in which the prime minister of unity, Abdallah Hamdok, was overthrown.
The war has so far left more than 1,100 dead, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, but the real figures could be much higher considering the inter-communal violence unleashed in the Kordofan and Darfur regions.
In addition, more than three million people have been displaced, including almost 740,000 who have fled to neighboring countries, according to data published this Wednesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), amid reports of daily atrocities and large-scale sexual abuse against the women and girls of the country.
