Sudan: Extreme Violation of Human Rights
October 18, 2024 Hour: 4:51 pm
During the first two weeks of October, about 800 people, most of them women and children, were killed due to aerial bombardment in a number of areas in Sudan, according to estimates included in data issued by human rights organizations, including the Central Observatory for Human Rights, the Emergency Lawyers Group, and the Darfur Lawyers Association. According to these data, more than 500 people were killed during the first five days of October in North and West Darfur and a number of other areas of the country.
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The Central Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement on Thursday that warplanes continue to indiscriminately bomb civilians, which constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and international treaties.
In this context, a group of activists said that targeting civilian areas whose residents have no involvement in the fighting by airstrikes is a clear violation of international conventions and laws. The resource points out that Articles 3, 32 and 34 of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, prohibit attacks on life and physical integrity, in particular murder and torture of all kinds, and oblige parties to the conflict to treat persons taking no active part in the hostilities.
It highlights that this includes members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause, humanely, without any adverse distinction based on race, color, religion or belief, sex, birth or wealth or any other similar criterion.
As the civil war enters its second year, Sudan’s two warring factions remain locked in a deadly power struggle. Since the conflict began on April 15, 2023, almost 15,000 have been killed, and more than 8.2 have been displaced, giving rise to the worst displacement crisis in the world. Nearly 2 million displaced Sudanese have fled to unstable areas in Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.