Executive Director of Human Rights Watch: “In the face of escalating atrocities in Sudan, the Security Council has neglected its responsibility to respond forcefully.”

September 14, 2023 (Pen) - The international community should mobilize to address the catastrophe unfolding "before our eyes," said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch, and leaders of more than 50 international human rights and humanitarian organizations. Their statement noted that Sudan "is no longer on the brink of mass atrocities. I fell on the edge."

Tirana Hassan stated that in the face of escalating atrocities in Sudan, the Security Council has neglected its responsibility to respond forcefully. The world's foremost body on international peace and security must not remain silent in the face of serious international crimes.

According to Human Rights Watch, nearly five months after fighting erupted in Khartoum, the conflict, rife with human rights abuses, has spread to Darfur and South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Sexual violence is on the rise, civilians are facing deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, and journalists and human rights defenders are being silenced. The UN Security Council, which has put Sudan on the agenda for decades, has yet to pass a single substantive resolution grappling with the ongoing crisis.

"The UN Security Council must move from rhetoric to action and begin negotiations to pass a resolution that challenges the climate of impunity, reaffirms that international law requires safe and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance, and redirects international efforts to better protect Sudan's most vulnerable," the leaders said in their joint statement.

Human Rights Watch reported that the appeal by senior leaders, which they referred to as an attempt to "sound the alarm," was issued on September 13 to coincide with a Security Council meeting on the situation in Sudan. The statement warns that "the costs of inaction are increasing." The leaders committed to working together to urge "more aid and more solidarity with and attention to the needs of Sudanese civilians."

Inside Sudan, more than 20 million people, 42 percent of Sudan's population, face acute food insecurity, and 6 million people are one step away from famine. At least 498 children died of starvation. Clinics and doctors came under fire across the country, knocking out 80 per cent of the country's main hospitals.

Since April, when open hostilities began in Khartoum, more than five million people have been forced to flee their homes, and hundreds of thousands more may soon be forced to join them.