Sudan: Mass Atrocities - 'Sudan Has Fallen Over the Edge'

14 September 2023
Dabanga (Port Sudan)

Sudan — The heads of more than 50 human rights and humanitarian organisations have released an open letter "to sound the alarm about Sudan, where a disaster is unfolding before our eyes". The signatories warn that "with fighting continuing across the country, brutal sexual violence rising, widespread deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and journalists and human rights defenders being silenced, the country is no longer at the precipice of mass atrocities - it has fallen over the edge".

The signatories to the open letter lament that since April, when open hostilities broke out in Sudan's capital, "more than five million people have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands of others may soon be forced to join them. Many are now living in camps with limited access to humanitarian assistance, few educational opportunities for their children, and almost no psychosocial support to help them cope with their traumatic experiences".

They highlight that within Sudan, over 20 million people, 42 percent of Sudan's population, now face acute food insecurity and six million are just a step away from famine. At least 498 children have died from hunger. Clinics and doctors have come under fire throughout the country, putting 80 percent of the country's major hospitals out of service.

Hate speech

Hate speech, especially language urging the targeting of communities based on the color of their skin, is always alarming. But with an increasingly fractured social fabric, some fighters targeting civilians based on their ethnicity, and accounts from sexual violence survivors in Darfur who heard their rapists tell them that we hope you bear "our" babies - we fear the worst.

Twenty years after the horrors of Darfur shocked our conscience, we are failing to meet the moment. Thus far, mediation efforts have not deterred Sudan's warring parties from continuing to commit egregious abuses. We urge a more unified approach that better represents the voices and perspectives of Sudan's civilians, including women, youth, and representatives from the historically marginalised "periphery."

We are committed to working together to urge more aid for, more solidarity with, and greater attention to the needs of Sudan's civilians. The United Nations humanitarian appeal remains woefully underfunded - at about 25 percent of what is needed - and Sudan's warring parties continue to undermine efforts to deliver aid safely. Donors should step up humanitarian funding, both for local and international organisations who are providing indispensable assistance in Sudan and neighbouring countries.

The costs of inaction are mounting. The UN Security Council should move from talk to action and begin negotiations to pass a resolution that challenges the climate of impunity, reiterates that international law requires providing safe, unhindered humanitarian access, and redirects international efforts to better protect Sudan's most vulnerable. The consequences of not acting are too grave to imagine.

Signatories (listed alphabetically):

  • Act for Sudan, Eric Cohen, Co-Founder
  • African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, Mossaad Mohamed Ali, Executive Director
  • Africans for the Horn of Africa, Stella Ndirangu, Coordinator
  • Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, Secretary General
  • Association of Sudanese-American Professors in America (ASAPA), Beckry Abdel-Magid, Secretary
  • Atrocities Watch, Dismas Nkunda, CEO
  • Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Bahey El Din Hassan, Director
  • Carter Center, Paige Alexander, CEO
  • Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), Udo Jude Ilo, Executive Director
  • Center for Peace Building and Democracy in Liberia (CEPEBUD-Liberia), Florence N. Flomo, Executive Director
  • Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, President
  • Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Carol Cohn, Director
  • Darfur Diaspora Association Group in the United Kingdom, Abdallah Idriss, Director
  • Darfur Women Action Group, Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President
  • DefendDefenders, Hassan Shire, Executive Director
  • EG Justice, Tutu Alicante, Executive Director
  • Freedom House, Michael J. Abramowitz, President
  • Genocide Alert, Gregor Hoffman, Chairman
  • George W. Bush Institute, David Kramer, Executive Director
  • Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Savita Pawnday, Executive Director
  • Global Survivors Fund, Dennis Mukwege, President
  • GOAL, Siobhán Walsh, CEO
  • HIAS, Mark Hetfield, President & CEO
  • HUDO Centre, Bushra Gamar, Executive Director
  • Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, Executive Director
  • iACT, Sara-Christine Dallain, Executive Director
  • Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University, Kerry Whigham, Co-Director
  • InterAction, Anne Lynam Goddard, Interim President and CEO
  • International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Eleonore Morel, CEO
  • International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, President & CEO
  • Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Felice Gaer, Director
  • Legal Action Worldwide, Antonia Mulvey, Founder and Executive Director
  • MADRE, Yifat Susskind, Executive Director
  • Mercy Corps, Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer
  • Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, Kyle Matthews, Executive Director
  • Never Again Coalition, Lauren Fortgang, Director
  • No Business with Genocide, Simon Billenness, Director
  • Nobel Women's Initiative, Maria Butler, Executive Director
  • Nonviolent Peaceforce, Tiffany Easthom, Executive Director
  • Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, Secretary General
  • Open Society Foundations, Mark Malloch-Brown, President
  • OutRight International, Maria Sjödin, Executive Director
  • Physicians for Human Rights, Saman Zia-Zarifi, Executive Director
  • Plan International, Stephen Omollo, CEO
  • Project Expedite Justice, Cynthia Tai, Executive Director
  • Public International Law & Policy Group, Paul R. Williams, President
  • Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, President
  • Regional Centre for Training and Development of Civil Society, Mutaal Girshab, Director General
  • Society for Threatened Peoples, Roman Kühn, Director
  • Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, Suliman Baldo, Executive Director
  • Sudan Unlimited, Esther Sprague, Founder and Director
  • Sudanese American Public Affairs Association, Fareed Zein, Board Chairman
  • The Sentry, John Prendergast, Co-Founder
  • Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), Aymen Tabir, Executive Director
  • US-Educated Sudanese Association (USESA), Samah Salman, President
  • Vital Voices, Alyse Nelson, President & CEO
  • World Federalist Movement Canada, Alexandre MacIsaac, Executive Director
  • World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy (WFM/IGP), Amy Oloo, Consulting Executive Director

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