In September, Machar and 20 co-defendants from his Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-in-Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) party were indicted on charges of terrorism, treason, and crimes against humanity for their alleged role in a March attack on a military garrison that the government says killed more than 250 soldiers. Machar has denied the charges while the SPLM-IO has called the accusations baseless and politically motivated.
Hundreds of patients and staff massacred at a hospital; unarmed men of fighting age separated and shot at close range; civilians trying to flee stripped of their belongings and extorted for ransom; perpetrators filming much of the violence themselves. The reports of atrocities that have emerged from the Sudanese city of El Fasher since it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last weekend follow a familiar pattern.
The rate of civilian deaths across Sudan has increased, the report says, with 3,384 civilians dying in the first six months of the year, a figure equalling 80 percent of the 4,238 civilian deaths throughout the whole of 2024. Sudan's conflict is a forgotten one, and I hope that my office's report puts the spotlight on this disastrous situation where atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed, OHCHR chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
