GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights investigators on Friday urged the creation of an “independent and impartial force” to protect civilians in Sudan’s war, blaming both sides for war crimes including murder, mutilation and torture and warning that foreign governments which arm and finance them could be complicit.
The fact-finding team, in their first report since being created by the U.N.’s main human rights body last October, also accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which are fighting Sudan’s army, and its allies of crimes against humanity including rape, sexual slavery and persecution on ethnic or gender grounds.
“The people of Sudan have suffered greatly, and the violations against them must stop. This cannot be done without ending the fighting,” Mohamed Chande Othman, the chair of the team, told a news conference.
The experts called for the expansion of an arms embargo on Sudan's long-restive western Darfur region to the entire country.
The findings from the team mandated by the 47-country Human Rights Council come as more than 10 million people have been driven from their homes — including over 2 million to neighboring countries — and famine has broken out in one large camp for displaced people in Darfur.
The conflict that erupted in April last year has killed untold thousands of people, and humanitarian groups are struggling to gain access to people in need. In December, the U.N. Security Council voted to end the world body's political mission in the country under pressure from the military leadership.
While the killings, displacements and forced starvation have been long known, the call for creation of an independent force marks the latest sign of desperation from rights advocates both within the country and abroad to halt the bloodshed, displacement and food crisis.
“Given the failure of the parties to protect civilians so far, the fact-finding mission recommends the deployment of an independent and impartial force with a mandate to protect civilians in Sudan,” the team's report said.
The experts did not specify what might make up that force, nor did they say which countries might be complicit in the crimes through their backing of rival sides. Sudan's military has accused the United Arab Emirates of supporting the RSF, a claim the Gulf country has denied.
Neighboring Egypt is among the backers of Sudan's armed forces.
“The fact-finding mission considers that fighting will stop once the arms flow stops," the report said. It called for an immediate end to funneling weapons, ammunition and other support to any side, "as there is a risk that those supplying arms may be complicit in grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law.”
The experts focused on a period from January and August this year. They visited three neighboring countries and took testimonies from over 180 survivors, relatives and witnesses to the conflict that now has spread to 14 of Sudan’s 18 states.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, a team member, said conflict-related sexual violence had a “long and tragic history” in Sudan, and civilians — overwhelmingly women and girls — "were, and continue to be, targeted with sexual violence in particular rape (and) gang-rape by both parties to the conflict.
Earlier this month, talks in Geneva convened by the United States, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia made some headway in getting aid into Sudan, but mediators lamented the lack of participation of Sudan’s armed forces. Egypt, the UAE, the African Union and the United Nations were also involved in the talks.
The team has little power to affect events on the ground in what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Its report mainly serves to train a spotlight on rights abuses and violations for the world community and help inform International Criminal Court prosecutors.
Othman, speaking to The Associated Press, said the team had not compiled “concrete evidence” about which countries were funneling weapons and money to the rival sides beyond what they had seen in media reports, but that the issue was “worth investigating.”
“It should be assigned to some person or some agency to look into it, because it is serious in the context of the protracted war in Sudan,” he said.
From left, United Nations Fact-Finding Mission's expert member Mona Rishmawi, left, its chair Mohamed Chande Othman and expert member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo present its first investigative report to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission, presents its first investigative report to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission, presents its first investigative report to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
FILE - Residents displaced from a surge of violent attacks squat on blankets and in hastily made tents in the village of Masteri in west Darfur, Sudan, on July 30, 2020. (Mustafa Younes via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sunday was to be a day of relative rest for Donald Trump, a rare breather this deep into a presidential campaign. Aside from sounding off on social media, golf was on the agenda.
Then the Secret Service spotted the muzzle of a rifle sticking out of a fence in bushes at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club, and everything changed.
For the second time in just over two months, someone apparently tried to shoot Trump and came dangerously close to the former president in that effort — within 500 yards Sunday, law enforcement officials said. This time, the gunfire came from the Secret Service, before the suspect could get any shots off at his target.
The episode raised sharp questions about how to keep the former president safe -- not only while he is campaigning across the country, but while he spends time at his own clubs and properties.
Trump has had stepped-up security since the assassination attempt on him in July, when he was wounded in the ear during an attack that laid bare a series of Secret Service failures. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind bulletproof glass.
But unlike typical VIPs, who live in private residences with tall fences, Trump, while in Florida, resides at a club open to dues-paying members, and often spends his down time at his golf courses. And this a toxic era in the nation's politics.
“The threat level is high," Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, told reporters Sunday. “We live in danger times."
Sunday in the political world opened with Trump assailing a pop star on social media who had endorsed Kamala Harris — “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” — complaining about the post office and hitting the links. Running mate JD Vance riffed on TV about that thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory concerning immigrants and pets, refusing to disown it. Democrats were apoplectic.
All that was standard fare for the most tumultuous presidential campaign in anyone’s memory. But shortly before 2 p.m., the subject abruptly changed and this election was thrust ever deeper into unprecedented territory.
Trump and golf partner Steve Witkoff were on the fifth hole of the course and about to putt when they heard the “pop, pop, pop, pop," said Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close friend of the former president who spoke with him several times afterward as well as with Witkoff.
Moments later, Hannity said, a "fast cart” with steel reinforcement and other protection whisked Trump away.
After the Secret Service noticed the rifle and then the suspect, an agent fired on him but apparently missed.
Secret Service agents immediately used their bodies to shield Trump and moved him to the golf course’s clubhouse, where he remained until he went back to Mar-a-Lago about 15 minutes away, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and described it on condition of anonymity.
About an hour later, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office were investigating an unspecified “protective incident involving former President Donald Trump," adding he was safe.
The meaning was highly unclear. It could have been an unrelated shooting or disturbance near Trump, for all the country knew at first. "There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” said Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, describing the emergency response he witnessed.
The Trump campaign issued a statement saying “President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity." Again, no word whether he was the intended target.
But it soon became known that the Secret Service had fired shots. And about an hour after that happened, Donald J. Trump Jr. posted on X that an AK-style rifle was discovered in the bushes, “per local law enforcement."
All of that was finally followed by an FBI statement saying it is investigating "what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
The suspect quickly vanished but law enforcement had managed to identify his vehicle.
Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.
The suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or be-on-the-lookout alert — detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and description of the driver.
“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody."
Snyder added: "He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights — a lot going on. He never questioned it.”
With that, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Kaaawa, Hawaii, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to AP but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The suspect had left behind an AK-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks hanging on a fence with ceramic tile inside and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
The sheriff said the suspect was 400 to 500 yards away from Trump hidden in shrubbery, while the former president played golf on a nearby hole.
“It was certainly an interesting day! ” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night. He effusively thanked law enforcement for keeping him “SAFE.”
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
Police crime scene vehicles are seen at Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Laura Loomer uses her cell phone near Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle
Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at Harry Reid International Airport to board a plane after a campaign trip, Saturday, Sept.14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
