Human Rights Watch says “thousands” died in attacks last year against the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias killed “at least thousands of people” in West Darfur state, an international rights group said, in what it called apparent “crimes against humanity” and “ genocide”.
In a report published on Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said RSF attacks on the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups between April and November 2023 were some of the worst atrocities in the ongoing civil war that began that April. .
The attacks in el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, resulted in entire neighborhoods housing mainly displaced Masalit communities being looted, burned, bombed and razed.
The campaign that amounted to “ethnic cleansing” left hundreds of thousands of people as refugees, HRW said in its 186-page report.
The violence, which included mass torture, rape and looting, peaked in mid-June – when thousands of people were killed in a few days – and increased again in November, he said.
Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group said an arms embargo was imposed on Darfur years ago but never enforced, also warning that serious violations could be underway in el-Fasher in North Darfur state and the latest state capital not under the control of the RSF.
“The Sudanese have basically been forgotten, obviously there is the war in Gaza which has attracted a lot of attention,” Boswell told Al Jazeera.
Between June 2023 and April 2024, HRW interviewed more than 220 people in Chad, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. It said its researchers also reviewed and analyzed more than 120 photographs and videos of the events, satellite images and documents shared by humanitarian groups to corroborate reports of abuse.
Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 when long-standing tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, left by Mohamed “Hemedti” Dagalo, erupted into street battles in the capital. , Khartoum.
El-Geneina, where the Masalits make up more than half the population, has seen some of the fiercest fighting outside Khartoum since then.
The UN World Food Program warned last week of the deteriorating situation in Darfur, where aid has been cut off as RSF forces attempt to take control of el-Fasher, where an estimated 500,000 displaced civilians are sheltering.
“As the UN Security Council and governments wake up to the impending disaster at El Fasher, the large-scale atrocities committed at El Geneina must be seen as a reminder of the atrocities that could occur in the absence of concerted action,” said the HRW executive. director Tirana Hassan.
More than half a million refugees from West Darfur have fled to Chad since April 2023. By the end of October 2023, 75 percent were from el-Geneina, HRW said, as it called on the UN and African Union to sanction those responsible and impose an arms embargo on the RSF.
“Frankly, it would take a high-level political focus in trying to pressure those who are arming the various sides and who themselves have the belligerence to stop this. Obviously, the United Nations tools are not very functional,” Boswell said.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
