Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described how satellite images show bodies piled high and sand stained by pools of blood after Sudanese city of el-Fasher fell to paramilitaries
The UK could slap sanctions on those involved in the bloody civil war in Sudan as MPs heard the aftermath of massacres can be seen from space.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described how satellite images show bodies piled high and sand stained by pools of blood after the Sudanese city of el-Fasher fell to armed paramilitaries.
More than 30 million people need lifesaving aid and 12 million have been displaced by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Foreign Secretary described it as the “worst humanitarian crisis in the 21st Century”. Addressing MPs, she said: “Famine is spreading, cholera and preventable disease are rampant and in el-Fasher, following the advances by the RSF, horrifying scenes of atrocities with mass executions, starvation, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war.
“Horrors so appalling that they can be seen from space. As UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) have put it, el-Fasher is a crime scene.
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“There are satellite pictures showing discolouration of sand consistent with pools of blood, multiple clusters of objects consistent with piles of human bodies, and the apparent burning of bodies and operations to dispose of bodies in mass graves. Further horrors will yet unfold unless greater action is taken.”
Ms Cooper said she had ordered officials to bring forward potential sanctions relating to human rights violations and abuses in Sudan.
In April 2024, the Tory Government sanctioned businesses supporting the SAF or RSF and froze the assets of companies linked to either side. The UK is urgently trying to secure a three-month humanitarian ceasefire to get urgently needed aid into the war-torn region.
Meanwhile, Ms Cooper warned that Israeli efforts to tackle violence by settlers in the West Bank are “completely insufficient”.
She said “stability in the West Bank is essential to any sustainable peace”, after the UN Security Council green-lit the creation of a temporary international stabilisation force for Gaza.
“Momentum must now be maintained,” she said. “It is essential that an international stabilisation force and trained Palestinian police can be deployed quickly to support the ceasefire and to avoid a vacuum being left which Hamas can exploit. We will also need the urgent formation of a Palestinian committee alongside the board of peace.”