UN opens emergency probe into atrocities around Sudan's al-Obeid

The UN Human Rights Council has passed a motion ​condemning the escalating violence committed by the paramilitary ‌Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan's al-Obeid and setting up an urgent inquiry into abuses there, Reuters reports.

Britain, which brought the motion ​alongside 14 other states, has previously warned of ​the risk of large-scale atrocities as the RSF ⁠massed forces around one of Sudan's largest cities, ​a siege that recalls the takeover of al-Fashir in ​North Darfur last year.

"These horrors must not be repeated," Britain’s Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders told the body.

Others, like South ​Africa's ambassador Zaheer Laher, backed the move, calling ​the situation a "red alert as the rapid security forces are drawing ‌from ⁠the very same genocidal playbook they used in al-Fashir."

The UN human rights chief warned that a "catastrophe" was unfolding around al-Obeid, and that his office ​had documented ​patterns of summary ⁠executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence in the surrounding region.

In the past, ​the RSF has denied such abuses — saying ​the ⁠accounts have been manufactured by its enemies and making counter-accusations against them.

The motion was adopted by consensus although ⁠China ​disassociated itself from the decision, ​saying it did not support investigations that target individual countries without ​their backing.

By Vafa Guliyeva