During the month of April 2016, SUDO (UK)’s network of human rights monitors have reported and verified 98 incidents of human rights abuses across Sudan involving 12 Sudanese states. A further five reports were also submitted concerning three instances of ethnic violence, killing 18 militia members on all sides, a report on the arrival of approximately 236 families displaced from the fighting in Jebel Marra to three IDP Camps situated in Marshang locality, South Darfur, as well as the appalling humanitarian conditions faced by South Sudanese refugees in East Darfur.
Enclosed within the 98 reports pertaining to human rights abuses, SUDO (UK) has assessed that various forces under the direct authority of the Government of Sudan2 were responsible, as individual entities, for 72 instances of human rights abuses. A further 10 abuses were carried out by groups categorised by monitors as “Government militias”3 , whilst 10 such abuses were recorded against militias labelled as Janjaweed. Three human rights abuses were perpetrated by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North, two were registered against unknown armed actors, and two abuses were registered against ethnic militias. The latter includes operations conducted by the Rezaigat Savanna militia in East Darfur and the Miri forces fighting against Rapid Support Force units in Kadugli, both of which led to the death and/or injury of civilians. It is worth stressing that at times multiple actors colluded in any one instance, hence why 99 perpetrators have been identified for 98 incidents.
The 98 reports detail the following: the death of 46 civilians4 ; the serious injury of 96 civilians; the rape of six women (including two minors), as well as the use of rape against one male in detention; the arrest of 52 people (two of which were detained in containers with one instance of torture); 11 counts of kidnap; 24 incidents of aerial bombardment utilising a minimum of 183 bombs including explosive and barrel bombs; 35 direct attacks on villages; 10 incidents pertaining to press freedom with six newspaper confiscations; and four incidents of the prevention of meetings, seminars and peaceful demonstrations.