HUMAN rights investigators called for the creation of an “independent and impartial force” to protect civilians in the war in Sudan today.

The UN-backed investigators, in their first report since being created by the UN’s main human rights body last October, blamed both sides in the conflict for war crimes including murder, mutilation and torture and warned that foreign governments that arm and finance them could be complicit.

They also accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are fighting Sudan’s army, and its allies of crimes against humanity including rape, sexual slavery and persecution on ethnic or gender grounds.