Outside forces fuel Sudan war, new report finds

Foreign recruitment and external support networks are fuelling the brutal conflict in Sudan, independent UN human rights investigators said on Thursday in a new report, calling for accountability as fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).This action is strengthening the military capabilities of the warring parties and enabling increasingly sophisticated military operations with devastating consequences for civilians, according to the report by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan.The report documented the involvement of transnational entities operating in several countries in recruiting, training, and deploying foreign personnel to support the RSF, as well as facilitating the transfer of weapons, ammunition, and military technology, and providing logistical support.It also concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the SAF used foreign-supplied drones in operations that harmed civilians and civilian objects.Civilians bearing the bruntThe mission pointed to the "strict international legal obligations" incumbent upon States linked to these supply chains, which require t...