The United Nations says at least 18,800 people have died in the power struggle between the government and militias in Sudan since April 2023.

The warring parties and their allies are responsible for “an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations,” a UN Commission of Inquiry on Sudan reported on Friday.

Both the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia had targeted civilians and aid workers, according to the report by a commission of enquiry.

Among the violations of international humanitarian law were war crimes such as sexual violence, torture, ill-treatment, murder, and mutilation.

A power struggle between rival generals has raged in Africa’s third-largest country since April 2023.

More than ten million people have been displaced, two million of whom have fled across the borders to neighbouring countries.

Humanitarian organisations are warning of famine.

Experts accuse the RSF militia and its allies of violence against people based on their ethnicity in West Darfur.

The victims there are mainly the Masalit population group.

The militia is responsible for numerous rapes.

The victims were between eight and 75 years old.

The RSF had compelled children under the age of 15 to serve in the armed forces, displaced people, forced some of them into slave labour and plundered them.

The chairman of the UN commission, Mohamed Chande Othman, called for the deployment of an independent force to protect civilians and for a tribunal to investigate perpetrators alongside the International Criminal Court.

(dpa/NAN)