Sudan: Immediate ceasefire, protect civilians, open safe humanitarian corridors

The statement highlights the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by armed conflict, famine, and the obstruction of aid. It calls for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and increased international support for local humanitarian efforts, particularly those led by women’s groups. Read the full statement below, and watch it here.

During the HRC58 debate, the High Commissionner condemned the widespread human rights violations, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, mass killings, sexual violence, ethnically motivated executions, and the recruitment of child soldiers. He highlighted reports of journalists, civil society members, and human rights defenders facing arbitrary detention, torture, and even death. Many of these acts, he noted, may constitute war crimes. Türk urged immediate international action to push for a ceasefire, humanitarian access, and enforcement of arms embargo. He stressed the need for a political solution that includes all Sudanese voices and called for accountability to break the cycle of violence and impunity. Without urgent intervention, he warned, hundreds of thousands more could die. 

Adama Dieng, The African Union Special Envoy on the Prevention of Genocide and Other Mass Atrocities urged collective urgent action in particular to those with ‘leverage to pressure over the parties into making the necessary concessions, to impose sanctions against the most egregious perpetrators of human rights and international humanitarian law violations.’ 

Sudanese civil society representative on the panel, Hanaa Eltigani, Assistant Secretary-General of Youth Citizens Observers Network  affirmed: ‘our demands remain the same: freedom, peace, and justice. No war, no armed faction, no internal or external agenda will erase that’. 

Overall, the debate on Sudan underscored the severity of the crisis where States from all regions urged for an immediate ceasefire, protection of civilians, humanitarian workers and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid. Numerous Council members including South Africa, Ghana,  Albania, Romania, Belgium, Germany, Iceland,  Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, called for accountability. 

South Africa and Greece also called for an end to the flow of arms and any external interference fuelling the conflict. 

Watch the video statement here:

Read the full statement below:

The combined effects of floods, a cholera outbreak, and ongoing conflict have created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Sudan is facing a man-made famine orchestrated by belligerents. This famine is not a byproduct of the conflict but a result of deliberate actions by the fighting parties, including restrictions, politicisation, and the use of aid and access to food as weapons of war.

Millions of people trapped in RSF-controlled areas have been prevented from accessing humanitarian aid, while those trapped in SAF-controlled areas suffer from restrictions imposed by the de facto government who are using access to aid as a tool to demonstrate power and as a negotiation card with the international community. Women and girls, who comprise the majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs), are the most affected by these war crimes.

Local initiatives led by Emergency Response Rooms and other women’s groups and community-based organisations have created general soup kitchens serving thousands of families across Sudan. Those operating in SAF-controlled areas are subjected to detention, torture, prosecution while those under RSF-controlled areas are subject to detention, threats, interrogation and other extremely hazardous conditions. Despite this and limited funding, they remain the primary lifeline in areas closed to international aid.

We call on States to urge the warring parties to ensure an immediate ceasefire and protect civilians, health workers and health facilities; open safe humanitarian corridors; and end all forms of aid looting and diversion. 

We urge UN human rights mechanisms including OHCHR, the Fact-Finding Mission and the Special Rapporteur on Food to prioritise documenting and reporting on the obstruction of aid, use of starvation as a weapon of war and the famine in Sudan. 

We urge the international community to commit to increasing funding to local humanitarian aid groups.

We call on the Sudanese government to investigate corruption in aid delivery.