The ongoing clash between two military factions in Sudan is having serious repercussions in Darfur, a region in the west of the country, which finds itself again plunged into turmoil 20 years after the outbreak of a major conflict that left hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Both the United Nations and human rights organizations have been issuing warnings in recent weeks about the proliferation of attacks in the region against civilians based on their ethnicity.
The international organization’s special representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, recently warned that some of these attacks could potentially constitute “crimes against humanity”.
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He denounced more specifically the action of Arab militias and members of the Rapid Support Forces of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”, who is from the region.
Armed men from their ranks are notably accused of having killed hundreds of people during an assault on the city of al-Genaïna in mid-May.
THE New York Times recently reported, based in particular on the testimony of refugee survivors in Chad, that snipers had been positioned to shoot down civilians fleeing the scene.
The High Commissioner for Refugees in turn expressed alarm on Tuesday at the situation in Darfur, stressing that the fighting was intensifying and that “the ethnic dimension that we had observed in the past is unfortunately coming back”.
“Relaunch the purges”
“Hemedti seeks to take advantage of the country’s unstable situation to relaunch the ethnic purges undertaken 20 years ago and to expel the non-Arab populations of Darfur”, notes Marie Lamensch, analyst attached to the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies. and Human Rights from Concordia University.
Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on Arab militias in the region, backed by the army, to put down non-Arab rebel groups in the early 2000s.
Both Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and his enemy, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who today heads the Sudanese army, had played an important role in the conflict.
Omar al-Bashir was ousted from power in 2019 and arrested after a major popular uprising followed by the formation of a transitional government tasked with leading the country to new elections.
After several twists and turns, the process came to a halt in 2021 when the two generals decided to reclaim power.
The army leadership subsequently demanded the integration of members of the Rapid Support Forces into its ranks by proposing a rapid timetable which aroused the ire of their leader.
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Smoke rising in the sky over Khartoum in early June
The conflict culminated in massive fighting in April that paralyzed the capital, Khartoum, before spreading elsewhere in the country.
The truces that have since been announced have not held. Neither of the two men wants to give up even if the crisis is likely to spread throughout the region.
Marie Lamensch, analyst attached to the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University
In a recent analysis, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warns that the Sudanese territory risks eventually finding itself fragmented between the Rapid Support Forces in the West, the army in the North and East and other armed groups that took advantage of the crisis to expand their territory.
” Win time ”
The organization notes that none of the generals involved in the conflict has “negotiated in good faith” so far.
“They accuse each other of wanting to use any break in the fighting to regroup their forces and prepare for the next round, which explains why no truce holds,” the researchers point out.
The ICG believes that the creation of a new transitional government made up of technocrats with limited power could be the best avenue for the country to follow if the belligerents end up ceasing hostilities under pressure from the international community.
Such a solution is unlikely to satisfy civil organizations wishing to quickly oust the army from power, but could help to “buy time” while waiting for lasting solutions to the problems undermining the country to be found, we warn.
Fierce fighting in Khartoum on the eve of a “sad” Eid
Fighting raged Tuesday in Khartoum between the paramilitaries who threaten to take the city and the army which now calls on all young people in Sudan to join the flag, on the eve of the important Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. In the capital, the fighting between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo is now concentrated around military bases. For several days, the FSR have been trying to take the last army bases in the capital, where millions of inhabitants are still hiding. The RSF took over the police headquarters and its huge arsenal in southern Khartoum, and they harassed the army on Tuesday at bases in central, northern and southern Khartoum, residents told AFP . If they take these last bases, they will have taken control of Khartoum, assure the experts.
France Media Agency