Sudan's government continues to launch deadly land and air attacks in Darfur, where peacekeepers lack the resources to protect civilians, a United Nations human rights investigator said today.
Sima Samar said all sides in the conflict were committing abuses, including looting and rapes, without being held responsible.
"In the period under review, there have been widespread allegations of arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, incommunicado detention and serious violations of the right to fair trial," Ms Samar said in her latest annual report covering two visits to Sudan this year.
All perpetrators should be prosecuted in fair trials, she said in the report to the UN Human Rights Council that flagged violations in Darfur and the oil-rich Abyei region.
"There are several reports of air attacks by government forces, leading to extensive civilian casualties," the report said, citing bombings in west Darfur and in north Darfur in the first half of this year.
Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect.
A joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID, has been deployed in Darfur after delays, but only has 9,990 soldiers and police out of an initially promised 26,000.
Many communities in Darfur have expressed concern at the perceived "inability of UNAMID to protect the civilian population from the conflict and incidents", according to Ms Samar.
She called for Khartoum and the international community to give their "unconditional support to speeding up and completing the deployment of UNAMID".
Reuters