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Sudan’s unprecedented humanitarian disaster is still deepening. While fighting is engulfing many areas, the scale of human rights violations and abuses is shocking. Calls for an end to the hostilities between the two parties in the fratricidal war, the army commanded by General Abdel Fattah Abdel Rahman Burhane and the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) paramilitary forces, and for the launch of a comprehensive and inclusive peace process, have multiplied without success. Tens of thousands of people dead, millions displaced, famine looming: this is a true tragedy that challenges us.
Radhouane Nouicer, the UN expert on human rights in Sudan appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in December 2022, is hard at work. For more than three decades, this jurist, a graduate of ENA and former senior Tunisian civil servant, has held senior positions in the United Nations, notably at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). In 2011, he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Transitional Government of Tunisia, before taking on new missions on behalf of the United Nations, with extensive expertise, especially in humanitarian and refugee issues and the protection of civilians in countries in conflict or emerging from conflict.
In mid-July last year, Radhouane Nouicer spent five days in Sudan, specifically in Port Sudan. Based on his observations and interviews about the absolutely disastrous situation in the country, he agreed to answer questions from leaderIn his speech, he also appealed to the warring parties and the international community.
interview
You have been serving as the UN expert on human rights in Sudan since late 2022. How did you find the situation in the country when you took office, and how has it deteriorated since the civil war broke out in April 2023?
My first visit to Sudan in my current capacity was in late January/early February 2023, when the Political Framework Agreement (PCA) had just been signed by most of the country’s political and military actors and the country was in the midst of a comprehensive political gestation facilitated by the United Nations, the African Union and IGAD, with large-scale popular consultations on five controversial issues that had not yet been resolved within the APC framework. These issues involved the dismantling of the old regime, the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement, the situation in eastern Sudan, transitional justice and security sector reform. These consultations were aimed at reaching a final political agreement, a transitional constitution and the formation of a civilian government.
Issues related to security sector reform, in particular the integration of the country’s two armed forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are the most sensitive part of the process. At dawn on April 15, 2023, despite mediation efforts supported by several influential international actors, a war between the two armed forces finally broke out. Apparently, the military leaders of the two countries decided to resolve the conflict on the battlefield rather than at the negotiating table.
You returned from Port Sudan to alert the international community to the unprecedented and disastrous humanitarian and human rights situation in Sudan. The scale of violence is shocking and cases of sexual abuse are increasing. What caught your attention most?
Since then, after more than 15 months of internecine military action, Sudan finds itself on the brink of chaos. The urban character of the conflict, its persistence and its widening scope, combined with the disregard by the parties to the conflict for the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, have resulted in scenes of unprecedented violence. Tens of thousands of civilian casualties have been recorded, most public services, health, education, justice and security have come to a standstill, and millions of Sudanese have been forced to leave their homes in search of safety within the country and abroad. Millions more remain trapped in their homes, without supplies and unable to leave for fear of their safety.
Private and public infrastructure, schools, hospitals, places of prayer, markets, and even places where humanitarian aid is stored have been looted, burned and destroyed. The country’s economy has been devastated, and in some areas people are forced to eat leaves to survive. To date, UN humanitarian agencies estimate that 25 million Sudanese are in need of humanitarian assistance, 18 million children are out of school, and a large part of the population is on the brink of famine.
Among the most repugnant phenomena of this conflict, I note i) cases of sexual violence against women and girls, observed and documented by the United Nations and several humanitarian agencies, in particular by members of the MSF and its allied militias, especially in Khartoum and Darfur; ii) ethnically based attacks on civilians. The most notable case was the attack by MSF forces against the Sudanese Masalit in Western Darfur in April 2023; iii) forced mobilization of youth and recruitment of children for military operations.
What are the contents of these meetings?
My recent visit to Port Sudan, where I met with senior officials from the Sudanese Transitional Authority, United Nations officials, representatives of local non-governmental organizations and displaced persons taking shelter in a school around Port Sudan, enabled me to see the deep suffering and sense of despair experienced by the majority of Sudanese citizens, as well as the gravity of the situation at the humanitarian and human rights levels.
In discussions with the authorities in an atmosphere of candor, transparency and mutual respect, I stressed the following four points:
1) Protect civilians, in particular by immediately halting indiscriminate attacks on populated areas and the use of wide-area explosive weapons in densely populated areas, often without warning or prior measures to protect civilians;
2) Facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance, regardless of its destination and beneficiaries, and through all possible internal and external border crossings;
3) Remove pressure on civil society representatives, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, regardless of their views or political affiliations. In this regard, I insist that freedom of expression should not, under any circumstances, lead to its authors being imprisoned or subjected to legal proceedings. I am also concerned about arbitrary arrests and detentions during the state of emergency in certain regions;
4) Define accountability for human rights violations and end the culture of impunity that has characterized Sudanese public life for decades. Any violations and abuses must be verified, documented, and the perpetrators, regardless of affiliation, must be subject to fair and transparent legal procedures. The authorities allow me to insist that the ongoing war is pointless and will only deepen divisions between Sudan’s various communities without producing any results. I encourage interlocutors to engage in good faith in political negotiations with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. The coming days will tell us whether some of these messages are being heard.
What message do you convey to the international community?
My visit to Port Sudan is also an opportunity to call on the international community to pay more attention to the tragedy that Sudan is experiencing, to show more generosity in funding the humanitarian response budget, which, despite the Paris conference on April 15, does not exceed 18% of the required budget, and most importantly, to work to bring the parties to the conflict to the table to resolve the conflict in a peaceful and civilized manner in order to prevent their country from further destruction and suffering.
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