The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday adopted a draft resolution on the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in the city of El Obeid in Sudan's North Kordofan state, by consensus and without resorting to a vote.
The resolution came at the request of Britain's leaders and received broad support from European countries, most notably Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, as it stresses an immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities, condemns air attacks and drone bombardments that targeted infrastructure and hospitals, in addition to explicitly condemning foreign interventions and the supply of weapons that fuel the flames of war.
In recent weeks, the city of El Obeid and its environs have been witnessing a violent military escalation and a suffocating siege that has led to the destruction of vital water pumping and power generation facilities, prompting the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to issue a "red alert" to the international community a few days ago, warning of a repeat of the atrocities, grave violations and summary executions that took place in the Darfur region and the city of El Fasher last year.
The UN mission maintained its mandate despite objections
The international community renewed its confidence in the independent monitoring mechanisms, as the resolution stipulated maintaining the mandate and continuation of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, and tasked it with conducting an urgent field investigation into the violations committed in the city of El Obeid and its surroundings, provided that the mission formally submits the results of its investigation to the Council at its next session next September.
This item came to confirm the determination of the international system to activate the principle of accountability, criminal accountability and the fight against impunity for the parties involved in the conflict.
The retaining of the mandate of the fact-finding mission comes despite the strict rejection and repeated objections expressed by the Port Sudan Authority to the extension of its work, as the official authorities consider that national mechanisms are capable of investigation, and view international missions as interference in sovereign affairs, which the Council overcame by approving the item by international consensus.
Sudan Doctors Network Warns of Epidemic Disaster
On the parallel field track, the Sudan Doctors Network issued a stern health warning of a tragic deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the areas west of Bara in North Kordofan State.
The network's field indicators revealed that more than 100 cases of measles were recorded among children, and at least 45 confirmed cases of cholera, amid a complete inability of the remaining medical facilities to provide the minimum emergency services as a result of the complete depletion of supplies and essential medicines.
The areas west of Bara and the surrounding administrative units (such as Taybat Zaatari, um Kredem and Mazoroub) are under siege and isolation as they are under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) control the center of the city of Al-Obeid, paralyzing the commercial and medical supply chain and cutting off the front lines, leaving vital facilities such as Taiba Zaatari Hospital and um Karedem Hospital operating without supplies.
Some 200,000 civilians were at risk of starvation and death
Documented medical reports confirmed that more than 200,000 citizens, including about 20,000 children in the municipalities of North Kordofan, are facing harsh living and health conditions that directly threaten their lives, due to the acute shortage of potable food and medicine, in conjunction with the use of "starvation and the siege of relief convoys" as a method of warfare by the conflicting parties, which has made vulnerable groups and children vulnerable to rapid death in the rampant epidemics.
This medical distress came in line with the official statistics issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Sudanese Ministry of Health earlier this month, which documented the expansion of the epidemic in the states of North and West Kordofan with more than 1102 suspected cases recorded, and the number of deaths due to cholera exceeding the barrier of 120 to 127 deaths, putting the region in the face of a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe unless immediate safe cross-border corridors are opened.
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