Ramon Rahangmetan

Set out the EU’s approach to the crisis and argued that any effective response must confront Islamist extremism within Sudan’s power structure and the SAF’s implication in violations, including chemical weapons use.

Manel Msalmi

Called on the UN, the EU and the ICC to investigate violence against women in Sudan and to apply the UNiTE campaign and the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Sudanese survivors of sexual violence, famine, displacement and chemical exposure. She stressed that accountability must apply to every armed actor in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces alike.

Andy Vermaut

Addressed General al-Burhan directly, calling for safe access to assistance, health care and education, and warning that history remembers the promises made in moments of danger.

“Leadership is not measured by the territory a force controls. It is measured by the lives that leadership protects.” Andy Vermaut, Vice President, EADM

Abdel-Rahim Grein

Presented two ICHR reports submitted to the UN on SAF chemical weapons use and its consequences for civilians, and discussed the Mecca pact. He reported that more than 80 percent of health facilities in conflict zones have been destroyed or militarised. ICHR recommends a no-fly zone, an OPCW-supported factfinding commission with ICC referral, an emergency education initiative, targeted sanctions, and a full arms embargo on all parties across the whole of Sudan.

“Death did not arrive with the sound of an explosion; it crept in silently to suffocate lungs and choke off breath.” Abdel-Rahim Grein, on Omdurman, 2024

Dr. Mohamed Ali

Traced the assault on women’s dignity to decades of Islamist rule and argued that sexual violence in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the current war is not a collection of isolated individual acts but a fully-fledged war crime and a crime against humanity. He highlighted the denial of education to girls in Darfur and Kordofan and the SAF’s indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas, markets, hospitals and schools.

Elisabeth Saba

Traced Sudanese women from the front line of the 2019 revolution to the war of 2023 and the pattern of rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery documented by UN investigators, including against children. She was explicit that both sides bear responsibility: the Rapid Support Forces and allied fighters have been implicated, and SAF personnel and allied forces have also been implicated. She warned that famine is driving female-headed households into survival sex, recalled the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s finding that atrocities in Darfur and Kordofan bore hallmarks of genocide, and asked whether the Council was prepared to listen and to act.

“Their bodies, or hunger.” Elisabeth Saba, TYFA, on the choice facing famine-driven survival sex