NGO Human Rights Watch warns of “possible genocide” in Darfur

For more than a year, Sudan has been in the grip of a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.

Mass torture, rape and looting… A series of attacks carried out by Sudanese paramilitary forces in the western region of Darfur “raises the possibility” of a “genocide” against non-Arab ethnic communities, says the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report published Thursday, May 9.

It documents how, from late April to early November 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, who oppose the country’s regular army in this war, waged war in Darfur “a systematic campaign aimed at expelling, in particular by killing, the inhabitants of the Massalit ethnic group”. Violence peaked in mid-June, when thousands of people were killed in a matter of days, and increased again in November.

The targeted Massalit ethnic group

Local human rights lawyers said the fighters primarily attacked “prominent members of the Massalit community”, including doctors, human rights defenders, local leaders and government officials. HRW adds that the attackers “methodically destroyed vital civilian infrastructure” in displaced communities.

Satellite images show that since June, the city’s predominantly Massalit neighborhoods have been “systematically dismantled, many with bulldozers, preventing civilians who fled from returning home”, they clarified. According to the NGO, “the apparent objective” attacks were “at least to push them to leave the region permanently”what “constitutes ethnic cleansing.”

HRW called for an investigation into genocidal intent and targeted sanctions against those responsible. The NGO urged the United Nations to “expand the arms embargo on Darfur to cover the whole of Sudan.” The International Criminal Court, which is currently investigating ethnically motivated killings committed mainly by the RSF in Darfur, says it has “reasons to believe” that these paramilitaries, as well as the army, are committing crimes that amount to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

For more than a year, Sudan has been in the grip of a war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of his former deputy turned rival, the General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”. The war left tens of thousands dead.