UN Mission Says Both Sudan Sides Committed Abuses, Peacekeepers Needed 

Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
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UN Mission Says Both Sudan Sides Committed Abuses, Peacekeepers Needed 

Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese children who have returned from Ethiopia gather amid tents fortified against heavy rain by sandbags, in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat on September 4, 2024. (AFP)

Both sides in Sudan's civil war have committed abuses that may amount to war crimes, and world powers need to send in peacekeepers and widen an arms embargo to protect civilians, a UN-mandated mission said on Friday.

Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have both attacked civilians, used torture and made arbitrary arrests, according to the 19-page report that said it was based on 182 interviews with survivors, their relatives and witnesses.

"The gravity of these findings underscores the urgent and immediate action to protect civilians," the chair of the UN factfinding mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, said. He called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed without delay.

Both sides have dismissed past accusations from the US and rights groups, and have accused each other of carrying out abuses. Neither immediately responded to a request for comment on Friday, or released a statement in response to the report.

The mission called for the expansion of an existing UN arms embargo which currently just applies to the western region of Darfur. The war that started in Khartoum in April last year has spread to 14 out of 18 of the country's states.

The reported abuses may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, the mission said.

The fact-finding team said it had tried to contact Sudanese authorities on multiple occasions but had got no answer.

The conflict began when competition between the army and the RSF, who had previously shared power after staging a coup, flared into open warfare.

Civilians in Sudan are facing worsening famine, mass displacement and disease after 17 months of war, aid agencies say.

US-led mediators said last month that they had secured guarantees from both parties at talks in Switzerland to improve access for humanitarian aid, but that the Sudanese army's absence from the discussions had hindered progress.

The report is the three-member mission's first since its creation in October 2023 by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A group of Western countries including the United States and Britain will call for its renewal at a meeting beginning next week, with diplomats expecting opposition from Sudan which considers the war an internal affair.



Israeli Forces Withdraw from Jenin

An Israeli soldier searches a roof during a raid in a building amid the ninth day of an ongoing military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 05 September 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
An Israeli soldier searches a roof during a raid in a building amid the ninth day of an ongoing military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 05 September 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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Israeli Forces Withdraw from Jenin

An Israeli soldier searches a roof during a raid in a building amid the ninth day of an ongoing military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 05 September 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
An Israeli soldier searches a roof during a raid in a building amid the ninth day of an ongoing military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 05 September 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Israeli forces have withdrawn from the city of Jenin and a refugee camp there in the occupied West Bank, following a 10-day episode of "violent aggression,” the Palestine news agency (WAFA) said on Friday.
Twenty-one people were killed in the city and camp, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
A Reuters witness said the Israeli forces left behind extensive damage to infrastructure.
In a statement on Facebook, the Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israel of transferring to the occupied West Bank its brutal destruction and devastation in the Gaza Strip, as evidenced by the situation in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, and the refugee camps there.

Palestinian health officials said Thursday that Israeli strikes in the West Bank killed six people.