Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have allegedly committed numerous crimes against humanity during their siege of the city of el-Fasher in Darfur, according to UN investigators.
The report by the UN Fact-Finding Mission accuses the group of murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence, forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds.
It also cited broader evidence of alleged war crimes by both the RSF and the regular army, however both sides have previously denied any wrongdoing in the country's ongoing civil war.
The UN report said the two groups targeted civilians in numerous ways and as deliberate strategies.
Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care, said Fact-Finding Mission chair, Mohamed Chande Othman.
Highlighting the RSF's actions in el-Fasher, the report accused the group of using starvation as a method of warfare that might amount to the crime of extermination.
In April, the RSF stormed the Zamzam camp near el-Fasher, forcing tens of thousands of the world's most destitute people to flee their homes once more. The situation in the camp was already dire, with a famine declared.
The US has accused the RSF of committing genocide against Darfur's non-Arabic population. The paramilitary group has denied responsibility and blames the violence on local militias.
Tens of thousands have died in Sudan's civil war, which has displaced around 13 million people.
