We Are ‘Very Deeply Alarmed’ By Prison Breaks in Sudan, Says The UN

In light of the conflict erupting in Sudan, which has seen Sudanese war crimes suspects escape, and the growing impunity, the United Nations expressed alarm Friday at the jail breakouts.

The UN additionally issued a warning that the conflict was rekindling ethnic hostilities in western Darfur, which had already claimed nearly 100 lives in a couple of days.

According to UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, “We’re very, very deeply alarmed by the prison breaks.”

We’re really concerned about the possibility of additional violence in the context of an overall atmosphere of impunity, she said.

Her remarks come in the wake of a number of prison breakouts, including one from a maximum security facility housing alleged war criminals, since rioting broke out across Sudan two weeks ago.

The UN was concerned, according to Shamdasani, that the impunity represented by the jailbreaks “is at the heart of much of what we are seeing today.”

It gives the criminals more confidence when severe offenses continue to go unpunished.

In the two weeks of battle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudanese army and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s paramilitary RSF, at least 512 people have died and 4,193 have been injured.

The UN has not yet been able to confirm the UN’s claim that there have been casualties, although Shamdasani cautioned that there “must be a serious underestimate” of those numbers.

“The human rights situation continues to dramatically deteriorate,” she declared.

Tens of thousands of people have fled into neighboring nations as hundreds of thousands have left their homes.

Shamdasani cautioned, however, that thousands of people are still stranded in residential neighborhoods where violence has been occurring.

As a result of the shutdown of banks, she added, “people are still being evicted by the RSF from their homes and are subject to extortion, looting, acute shortages of food, water, electricity, and fuel, limited access to healthcare, limited communication, and limited access to cash.”

The clashes between the military and RSF “have triggered intercommunal violence,” Shamdasani warned, adding that the UN was “concerned at the serious risk of violence escalating in West Darfur.”

“Deadly ethnic clashes have been reported in El Geneina, West Darfur, with an estimated 96 people killed since April 24,” she stated.