Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced that the ongoing conflict in Sudan has resulted in at least 14,600 deaths and 26,000 injuries over the past ten months.
He warned that the lives of Sudanese people have turned into a “continuous nightmare.”
Türk’s statement highlighted that the actual figures are likely much higher and include thousands of civilians, among them numerous women and children.
The conflict has seen the use of wide-impact weapons in densely populated urban areas, deployed from fighter jets, drones, and tanks.
The UN Commissioner also noted reports of the Rapid Support Forces recruiting hundreds of children in Darfur, a practice mirrored by the Sudanese army in the eastern part of the country.
Such actions starkly violate the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, to which Sudan is a signatory.
Türk expressed grave concerns over the arming of civilians in Sudan, potentially leading to the formation of unregulated armed civilian militias and increasing the risk of the country spiraling into a protracted civil war.
The fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in mid-April last year following weeks of tension as military and civilian parties were finalizing an internationally backed political process.
