A new report by the United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan has delivered a grim verdict on the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Titled “A War of Atrocities”, the investigation accuses both warring factions of deliberately targeting civilians in a conflict that has ravaged Sudan since April 2024. The mission’s findings suggest widespread atrocities that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, extermination, and systematic destruction of livelihoods.

The report paints a harrowing picture of a war in which civilians are not incidental casualties but deliberate targets. Investigators documented attacks on essential infrastructure, including markets, hospitals, water networks, food supplies, and displacement camps. In North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, a city under siege for months, RSF forces and allied militias carried out killings, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement, and the use of starvation as a weapon.

“Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and........

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