The conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted in April 2023, has rapidly escalated into one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian and human rights catastrophes.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan (FFM) has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and its allied militias have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The deliberate targeting of civilians including children and the systematic use of sexual violence form a central and deeply disturbing part of these violations.
What makes this crisis even more alarming is the role of the international community.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been repeatedly implicated in providing military support to the RSF, effectively fuelling mass atrocities and actively undermining peace efforts.
In line with Finland’s unwavering commitment to human rights and international law, as expressed through joint statements by the Nordic-Baltic countries, Finn Right International Human Rights Commission calls for immediate, decisive, and coordinated international action.
Summary of Findings on Atrocities
The UN Fact-Finding Mission, documented in reports A/HRC/57/23 and its companion document A/HRC/57/CRP.6, details a systematic pattern of widespread violations and grave abuses carried out against the civilian population of Sudan.
War Crimes
The Fact-Finding Mission found reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and its allied militias have committed numerous war crimes, including:
- Violence to life and person, including murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture
- Outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating and degrading treatment
- Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to actively participate in hostilities
- Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population
- Deliberately compelling entire civilian communities to abandon their homes and territories through coercion, violence, and fear
- RSF Commits War
Crimes Against Humanity
The Fact-Finding Mission further found reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and its allied militias have committed crimes against humanity, including:
- Murder
- Torture
- Enslavement
- Rape, sexual slavery, and other acts of sexual violence of comparable gravity
- Systematic targeting and oppression of individuals on combined grounds of ethnic identity and gender, denying them fundamental rights and protections
- Forcible displacement of population
- RSF Commits War
The UN FFM concluded that the RSF carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the predominantly non-Arab civilian population particularly the ethnic Masalit in West Darfur.
This attack was carried out pursuant to an organizational policy, a key element that legally constitutes crimes against humanity.
The deliberate and repeated targeting of an ethnic group also raises significant and urgent concerns about the risk of genocide.
International Complicity and Obstruction of Peace
The continuation of atrocities in Sudan is not happening in a vacuum. It is being enabled, sustained, and fuelled by international actors who provide military, economic, and political support to the warring parties.
The Role of the United Arab Emirates
The UAE is the RSF’s most prominent international backer and has been repeatedly accused of arming the group through multiple channels:
- The UAE has provided the RSF with direct military support, including arms shipments routed through intermediary countries such as Chad
- An Amnesty International investigation has identified advanced Chinese weaponry supplied by the UAE to the RSF in direct breach of an arms embargo
- The UAE’s sustained and deliberate support for the RSF effectively undermines civilian protection and constitutes a serious violation of international law
- RSF Commits War
Implications for Peace
The warring parties have shown little genuine commitment to lasting peace. While the RSF has declared unilateral ceasefires, the SAF has rejected peace proposals, citing the UAE’s role as a mediator as fundamentally biased.
This demonstrates clearly that certain external actors are not neutral facilitators of peace they are active participants in the conflict.
As long as the UAE and other foreign actors continue to provide material support to the RSF, the prospect of peace in Sudan will remain out of reach, and the civilian population will continue to pay the price with their lives.
Finland’s Position and Human Rights Obligations
Finland has a long and strong tradition of promoting human rights, international humanitarian law, and multilateral diplomacy.
In a joint statement delivered by Norway on behalf of the Nordic-Baltic countries Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden the group has already expressed collective alarm at the deteriorating situation in Sudan:
- They noted credible reports of ethnically motivated violence and conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence
- They called for a sustained ceasefire and demanded that all parties adhere strictly to international humanitarian law
- They condemned all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the strongest possible terms
- RSF Commits War
Finland’s obligation to protect human rights does not end at its borders. It extends to using every available avenue of influence to stop human rights violations wherever they occur.
This is especially critical in Sudan, where grave breaches of international humanitarian law are ongoing and where external support for perpetrators represents a significant and documented contributing factor.
Silence is not neutrality. In the face of crimes against humanity, silence is complicity.
Recommendations for the Finnish Government
Based on the severity of the crisis and the urgent need for concrete, coordinated international action, Finn Right International Human Rights Commission, Finland formally recommends that the Finnish government undertake the following:
Urge the EU to Strengthen Sanctions and Embargoes Actively push for the Council of the European Union to expand its sanctions regime against Sudan to include a comprehensive ban on all European companies and states that facilitate arms transfers to the warring parties.
This must include stricter controls on arms sales to intermediary countries, including the UAE and Chad.
Initiate Diplomatic Pressure on the UAE In bilateral and multilateral fora, including the UN Human Rights Council, Finland must publicly and consistently call on the UAE to immediately cease all military, financial, and political support for the RSF.
Finland should leverage its strong diplomatic relationships to push the UAE toward a genuinely constructive role in Sudan.
Support International Accountability Mechanisms The international community must provide full and sustained support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation and the UN Fact-Finding Mission, ensuring that perpetrators of international crimes are identified and held accountable.
The FFM has been hampered by a critical lack of resources and access. Finland must advocate loudly for the mission to be fully staffed, funded, and empowered.
Demand an Immediate Ceasefire and Humanitarian Access Finland must continue to lead alongside the Nordic-Baltic coalition in demanding a full and immediate ceasefire in Sudan.
Both the SAF and RSF must be compelled to allow full, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas of the country.
Raise the Issue of Child Soldiers as a Matter of Urgency Given the specific and documented finding that children are being recruited, conscripted, and used in active combat, Finland must raise this as a matter of the highest urgency at the UN Security Council and demand the immediate release, protection, and rehabilitation of all child soldiers.
Publicly Acknowledge the Role of Complicit States The international community’s failure to stop the violence has itself been part of the problem.
Finland must publicly and consistently acknowledge that the war in Sudan is being fuelled by foreign actors and that the tolerance of impunity has led to catastrophic levels of human suffering.
Accountability must extend beyond the battlefield it must reach those who enable the violence from a distance.
Conclusion
The scale, nature, and deliberate character of crimes being committed in Sudan demand an immediate, robust, and coordinated response from the international community.
Half-measures and carefully worded diplomatic statements are no longer sufficient.
As a nation with a deeply rooted commitment to human dignity and an established voice within the Nordic-Baltic alliance, Finland carries both the moral authority and the diplomatic weight needed to champion civilian protection in Sudan.
The deliberate targeting of children, the widespread and systematic use of sexual violence, and the ethnic cleansing taking place in West Darfur constitute crimes against humanity violations of the most fundamental principles of human dignity and international law.
The evidence is documented, the testimonies are recorded, and the truth of what is unfolding in Sudan is no longer deniable.
The world must now choose to act.
Failure to respond with urgency will continue to embolden perpetrators, reward complicit external actors, and pave the way for further mass atrocities.
The time for action is now not after the next massacre, not after the next report, and not after the next ceasefire that never holds.
Finn Right International stands with the people of Sudan.
Finn Right International Human Rights Commission Pori, Finland finnright.com info@finnright.com
gender-based violence and RSF crimes against humanity