(Khartoum) The head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, estimated on Tuesday that the violence perpetrated in the vast region of Darfur, in western Sudan, could constitute “crimes against humanity”.
Fighting has been raging in Sudan since mid-April between the army commanded by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
They are mainly concentrated in the capital Khartoum and in Darfur, a region where local militias, tribal fighters and armed civilians have joined the clashes.
The conflict has killed more than 1,800 people in the country according to the NGO Acled and two million displaced, according to the UN.
“As the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate, I am particularly concerned about the situation in El-Geneina (West Darfur) where the violence has taken on ethnic dimensions,” the UN envoy said in a statement. .
“Massive attacks against civilians, based on their ethnic origins, allegedly committed by Arab militias and armed men in RSF uniforms are very disturbing and, if true, could constitute crimes against humanity “, he warned.
Last week, the Sudanese government declared Mr. Perthes persona non grata, accusing him of being biased in the conflict. But Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said that his status remained “unchanged”.
While several truces have not been applied, NGOs are reporting a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Khartoum and Darfur.
“What is happening in El-Geneina and Kutum (further to the east) must give rise to an international investigation”, declared on Saturday on Twitter the governor of Darfur Minni Minnawi, a former rebel leader now close to the army.
In the early 2000s, General Daglo, at the head of the Janjawid militiamen, carried out a scorched earth policy in Darfur on the orders of then dictator Omar al-Bashir.
The war had left around 300,000 dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN. The Janjawid officially gave birth in 2013 to the FSR, paramilitary auxiliaries of the army.
Generals Burhane and Daglo had joined forces during the 2021 putsch to oust the civilians with whom they had shared power since the fall of Bashir in 2019. But differences then emerged and, in the absence of agreement on the integration of the FSR in the army, degenerated into war.