Smoke rises as the clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue in Khartoum, Sudan on June 09, 2023. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The ongoing battle between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudan Armed Forces and their allies for the city of El Fasher marks a significant escalation in Sudan’s 14-month conflict.
Once a haven for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing other parts of Darfur, El Fasher is now a war zone that the UN has described as “hell on Earth”. Atrocities by the warring parties include the shelling of residential areas, bombing of hospitals and attacks on food convoys, amid a dire humanitarian crisis.
In response, the African Union (AU) has proposed its strongest action since the conflict began in April last year.
In a 21 May communiqué, the AU Peace and Security Council asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) — the Banjul, Gambia-based AU rights body — to urgently investigate reported atrocities in El Fasher, and other areas in Darfur, and to make recommendations on accountability for perpetrators.
The African Commission adopted a resolution on 4 June outlining the deployment of a fact-finding mission to investigate violations, analyse the gender dimensions of the conflict and determine if crimes under international law have been committed.
On 21 June, the Peace and Security Council reiterated its call for investigations and agreed on additional concrete steps, including a proposal to convene an AU extraordinary summit on Sudan.
While its actions hitherto have hardly matched the scale and gravity of the conflict, the prospect of Peace and Security Council-mandated investigations signals a turning point in the AU’s response.
Perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan have enjoyed impunity for decades, so the call for investigations is a crucial first step toward delivering justice to victims of crimes committed in the conflict. The African Commission must, without delay, seize this opportunity.
Most urgently, the commission must engage with the Peace and Security Council and Sudanese authorities to secure access and safety guarantees for the proposed fact-finding mission.
If it cannot access the country, it must embrace a versatile methodology in collecting testimonies and evidence, including by conducting interviews via audio or video communication and visiting neighbouring countries to speak to those who have experienced or witnessed violations.
Investigations by the African Commission, focused on documenting and preserving evidence for future trials, could deter further violations by sending a strong message to perpetrators that they will face consequences for their actions.
They will also be a timely complement to the ongoing work of the UN-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan.
But the people of Sudan — already feeling forgotten — might doubt that the African Commission will step up to the plate. Indeed, the AU has disappointed them before.
After the 2019 Khartoum massacre, in which security forces killed at least 100 protestors, the Peace and Security Council tasked the AU Commission — the Addis Ababa-based AU secretariat — to coordinate with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Commission in investigating the incident.
Initiation of the investigation was at first delayed because the AU Commission failed to communicate with the African Commission on the way forward. Eventually, the outbreak of Covid-19 dashed any hopes for such investigation as many AU activities ground to a halt amid the pandemic.
An African Commission fact-finding mission on reports of slave trade in Libya, requested by the AU Commission, in 2017 has also not taken place.
An inquiry into the killing of dozens of migrants in a detention centre in Libya has similarly not happened since the Peace and Security Council requested it in 2019.
The African Commission has cited security concerns and inaccessibility of the country for its failure to undertake these investigations.
More recently, the African Commission failed to publish the findings and recommendations of its 2021 commission of inquiry into atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, terminating the mission without a single report to show for the two years of work.
Civil society from across the continent and beyond heavily criticised the move, dismissing the stated reasons as “unconvincing”.
This poor record has severely damaged the African Commission’s credibility and legitimacy, particularly in the eyes of victims of atrocities in Africa.
The Peace and Security Council-mandated investigations on El Fasher and the greater Darfur region thus provide an opportunity for the commission to turn things around.
A good starting point would be to emulate its actions during the 2015 Burundi crisis.
After getting Peace and Security Council authorisation, the African Commission quickly dispatched a fact-finding mission to Burundi to investigate human rights violations.
The preliminary findings were submitted to the Peace and Security Council at the end of the mission and were followed by a full-length report.
The African Commission’s speed in responding and compiling findings in this case revealed its potential to effectively investigate mass atrocities.
The ball is now in the commission’s court. It should not squander the opportunity to contribute to justice and accountability in Sudan.
The people of El Fasher, Darfur and all of Sudan are counting on it.
Dr Japhet Biegon is Amnesty International’s Africa regional advocacy coordinator.