Europe Sudan

BRUSSELS, 01 March 2024 / PRN Africa / -- Mr Vice/President, Mr High-Commissioner, Designated Expert,

We thank you for your report and for your work under such difficult circumstances.

After almost a year of conflict, we continue to hear of ever more appalling reports, no end in sight. Time and again, we have been promised by both the SAF and the RSF that gross violations and abuses of human rights committed during the conflict would be investigated, but nothing has been done.

In the autumn we maintained at length that the guns needed to be silenced, that there is no military solution to this conflict, and that humanitarian aid and assistance must reach those in need without any hindrance. However, currently about half of the Sudanese people are in dire need. This Council’s focus is on human rights and accountability for human rights violations and abuses. If Sudan is to have a way forward and if its people are to have a future in peace and unity, the fighting must stop, Assistance needs to reach those in need. and accountability must follow for those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law, to guarantee transitional justice and ensure the prevalence of peace.

The cycle of impunity needs to be broken. The EU is deeply concerned by the reports on ethnically motivated violence and calls for an end to the gross human rights violations, the horrendous acts of sexual and gender-based violence, the crimes against children and the killings, they need to stop. Millions have been displaced internally or fled the country, further straining tense situations in neighbouring countries. Sudan is now the largest displacement crisis in the world, also for children. It is also the largest child displacement crisis in the world. Humanitarian workers are being attacked while the people in Sudan are running out of food and face the risk of devastating, large-scale famine. This cannot continue.

Mr High-Commissioner, Designated Expert,

The European Union will continue to work with you and with African organizations and human rights defenders, and joins you in calling on the parties to the conflict to cease hostilities immediately, to comply with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, and to live up the Jeddah Declaration. This is the least the long-suffering people of Sudan deserve.

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SOURCE European External Action