The true figures are believed to be higher due to fear of reprisals,
social stigma, and a lack of trust in authorities to take action, it
said.
The
United Nations headquarters building is pictured though a window with
the UN logo in the foreground in the Manhattan borough of New York
Sudanese police and security
forces have shot, killed and abducted civilians in Darfur with
near-total impunity, the United Nations said on Friday in a report also
documenting crimes committed by rebels last year in the remote western
region.
The military conducted aeriel bombing and
ground attacks on civilians and burned villages in its campaign to end
the insurgency in North and South Darfur in 2014, the U.N. human rights
office said, citing serious violations of international law.
Peacekeepers
from the African Union and U.N., whose joint force in Darfur is known
as UNAMID, documented 411 cases of abuses by all sides in the conflict,
affecting 980 people, the report said. Nearly one-third involved sexual
violence.
"These included abductions, physical
assault, and armed attacks against civilians, particularly IDPs
(internally displaced persons), causing injury or death, sexual and
other forms of gender-based violence cases, including allegations of
rape, gang-rape and sexual harassment," the report said.
The
true figures are believed to be higher due to fear of reprisals, social
stigma, and a lack of trust in authorities to take action, it said.
Sudan's
government has faced a rebellion in Darfur since 2003 and a separate
but linked insurgency in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since South Sudan
seceded in 2011. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur
conflict, the U.N. says.
UNAMID documented the killing of 392 civilians across Darfur last year.
"Cases
which involved Government security elements and affiliated militia tend
to illustrate the weakness of law enforcement institutions and the
degree of impunity in which violations are committed," the report said.
Sudanese
armed forces are alleged to have committed mass rape of more than 200
women and girls in Tabit, North Darfur, but UNAMID investigators were
repeatedly denied access by Sudanese authorities, it said.
"The
authorities must bring an end to the endemic impunity in Darfur," said
Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Zeid
urged the Khartoum government and rebel movements to cooperate with
both domestic investigations and those at the International Criminal
Court, which began in 2005.
The Hague-based ICC
has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
On
Thursday he proposed a two-month ceasefire with rebels and set a date
for a new meeting in a national reconciliation process that collapsed in
January.
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