The UN Security Council on Friday called for an immediate end to hostilities in the Sudanese border area of South Kordofan, saying those who attacked civilians should be held to account.
“Members of the Security Council expressed their grave concern about the violence,” said the acting council president, German ambassador Peter Wittig.
The Security Council called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” and also condemned “any violent and unlawful act against civilians and UN personnel,” he said, warning those responsible would be held “accountable.”
All sides must give access to humanitarian staff, he added.
His comments came as reporters obtained an unpublished UN report that alleged the Sudanese army and allied forces have carried out systematic attacks on Nuba civilians in South Kordofan that could amount to war crimes.
Violence has swept Sudan’s ethnically divided state since June 5, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) battling Nuba militia aligned to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the ex-rebel army of the south, in what Khartoum calls a rebellion within its borders that it intends to crush.
However, the UN report, the most detailed of its kind to date, documents specific instances where the army allegedly attacked civilians and churches, carried out summary executions, torture and intimidation, and bombed civilian targets in a campaign that it says will “dissipate the Nuba population” if not stopped.
“The acts described in this report, allegedly perpetrated by the SAF, PDF [Popular Defense Force], Central Reserve Police Forces and the Government Police in Southern Kordofan ... if proven, may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it said.
An army spokesman was not immediately available to answer the accusations.
Khartoum has -previously -dismissed claims by church leaders and activists that Sudan’s army is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in South Kordofan, targeting the state’s indigenous Nuba peoples, many of whom fought with the SPLA during their 22-year war with the central government.
The 19-page report, which was commissioned by members of the UN Security Council and compiled by the human rights arm of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS), was completed late last month, shortly before the mission’s mandate expired on July 8.
“The consequences of [the ongoing aerial] bombardments on the Nuban people and in particular civilians, including women and children, are devastating. They have resulted in significant loss of life, destruction of properties, and massive displacement,” the report said.
“UNMIS Human Rights has received photographs of mangled and mutilated bodies of civilians, some cut into halves, including women and children,” the report added.
The US estimates that the conflict has forced at least 73,000 of people to flee their homes, but the number killed and displaced has been impossible to verify because of the tight restrictions on the movement of UN agencies and NGOs.
The UNMIS report said 37 individual incidents of extrajudicial killings had been confirmed, but indicated that the number could be significantly higher.
“An UNMIS staff member who was detained by SAF at their military facility in Umbattah locality reported during his detention, that he saw ... an estimated 150 dead bodies of persons of Nuban descent scattered on the grounds of the military compound,” the report said.
“Some of the bodies appeared to have bullet wounds and he reported a large quantity of blood on the ground. He reported a SAF soldier told them that they had all been shot dead,” it added.
Earlier this week, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to bring political stability and development to the state’s of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, which both have large numbers of SPLA supporters.
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