The bodies of at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others allegedly killed last month by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militia in Sudan’s West Darfur state have been buried in a mass grave outside the capital El-Geneina, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said Thursday. Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called on the RSF leadership immediately and unequivocally to condemn and stop the killing of people, and to end violence and hate speech against people on the basis of their ethnicity.
In Sudan’s Darfur region, the situation remains critical, with continued reports of heavy fighting and attacks on civilians.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and hors de combat individuals, and I am further appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated,” the High Commissioner said Thursday.
“There must be a prompt, thorough and independent investigation into the killings, and those responsible must be held to account.”
The bodies of at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others allegedly killed last month by Rapid Support Forces and their allied militia in West Darfur have been buried in a mass grave outside the region’s capital El-Geneina on the orders of the Rapid Support Forces, according to information obtained by the UN Human Rights Office.
OHCHR said local people were forced to dispose of the bodies in a mass grave, denying those killed a decent burial in one of the city’s cemeteries. At least 37 bodies were buried on June 20 in the approximately one-meter-deep mass grave in an open area called Al-Turab Al Ahmar in western El-Geneina. Another 50 bodies were buried at the same site on June 21.
Those buried in the mass grave were killed by RSF and their allied militia around June 13-21 in El-Geneina’s Al-Madaress and Al-Jamarek districts and include many victims of the violence that followed the killing of Khamis Abbaker, the Governor of West Darfur, on June 14, shortly after he was taken into custody by the RSF. They also include individuals who died from untreated injuries.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the RSF and other parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate prompt searches for the dead, their collection and evacuation without distinction, including based on ethnic background - as they are obliged to do under international law.
Also Thursday, the non-governmental organization Save the Children warned in a statement that children and adults are being attacked in vast numbers in worsening violence in the Darfur region. According to the NGO, recent eyewitness accounts from West Darfur paint a terrifying picture of children, men and women being killed in scores, with armed gunmen entering villages, pillaging and burning houses, and firing on fleeing residents.
Save the Children staff fleeing the city of El-Geneina reported seeing the bodies of hundreds of people – including children - left abandoned along the road, covered in flies. Staff said there appeared to be no differentiation between the ages or gender of the victims, with children, women and men all among the dead.
Community leaders estimate that over 5,000 people have been killed in El-Geneina since the violence started nearly three months ago.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Thursday that he is investigating fresh allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region, including the recent killings of 87 members of the ethnic Masalit community. Briefing the UN Security Council, Karim Khan said the ICC has ongoing authority to investigate crimes committed in Darfur and is looking at violence committed there since fighting erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Security Forces.
“The investigations that we are looking at encompass also many allegations in West Darfur — looting, extrajudicial killings, burning of homes. And also allegations in North Darfur,” he said.
Meanwhile, people continue to cross into Chad fleeing attacks against civilians in Darfur. Summary executions and the targeting of civilians on the road between El-Geneina and the border have also been reported by witnesses.
Thousands of people are crossing each day from Sudan’s Darfur region into the small border town of Adré in Chad, with many arriving injured and with harrowing stories of the violence they have escaped.
“People are running across the border, wounded, scared, with only their children in their hands and the clothes on their backs,” said Pierre Honnorat, the WFP’s country director in Chad, Tuesday. “They need safety, security, and humanitarian assistance.”
The World Food Programme said Tuesday that 20,000 people from Sudan’s Darfur region have arrived in the small Chadian border town of Adre in the last week alone. The agency said many of the people arriving from Darfur are seriously wounded amid reports that fleeing civilians are being deliberately targeted “with an increasing ethnic dimension to the violence.”
The UN agency said its relief efforts along the Chad-Sudan border have become increasingly challenging due to the annual rainy season. It has deployed two all-terrain vehicles that can each carry up to 1,200 kilograms of food and can cross multiple “wadis,” or large gullies filled with rainwater.
Nearly 240,000 refugees and returnees have crossed into Chad from Sudan since fighting began in April between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after months of rising tension over the country’s political future and plans to integrate the RSF into the national army.
West Darfur was one of the most food insecure areas in the country even before the current conflict started. However, UN agencies are continuing efforts to reach those in need. In Central, East, North and South Darfur, the World Food Programme has delivered food to nearly 500,000 people since the hostilities began.
Across Sudan, WFP says support is being provided to over 1.4 million men, women and children with food and nutrition assistance despite continued fighting and access challenges in 14 of the country’s 18 States, including some of the most hard-to-reach areas in Darfur, since operations resumed on May 3. But the deteriorating security situation and access restrictions by the warring parties is making it extremely challenging for the UN agency to scale up its assistance.
In a related development Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) kicked off its emergency seeds distribution campaign to reach farmers in key regions, ensuring that they have the necessary resources to meet food production needs. The FAO is responding to the urgency of the ongoing main crop production season in the country amid the ongoing conflict.
Fighting in Sudan has now entered its 13th week, with no end in sight after multiple failed ceasefire attempts. The country was plunged into chaos on April 15, when clashes erupted between forces loyal to two rival generals. Sudan's army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have been fighting for nearly three months in Sudan, inflicting destruction on the capital, causing extensive violence in Khartoum and also in Darfur, a vast western region bordering Chad.
Since mid-April, more than 3.1 million people have been forced to flee, including more than 2.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and more than 700,000 refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and other foreign nationals, who have crossed the borders into neighboring countries.
The major hosting countries include the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), most of the people displaced in Sudan have fled from Khartoum state and Darfur region.
Humanitarian needs in Sudan were already at record levels before the situation deteriorated. The number of people in need of humanitarian aid stands now at 24.7 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population. Among them are 13 million children in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.
The armed conflict in the country is further exacerbating an already challenging hunger situation. The conflict has dramatically increased the number of people at highest risk of hunger – from 11.7 million to 19.1 million people.
Further information
Full text: Sudan: At least 87 buried in mass grave in Darfur as Rapid Support Forces deny victims decent burials, OHCHR press release, published July 13, 2023
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/07/sudan-least-87-buried-mass-grave-darfur-rapid-support-forces-deny-victims
Full text: Darfur: Aid workers witness hundreds of murdered bodies including children abandoned in streets, Save the Children International, statement, published July 13, 2023
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/darfur-aid-workers-witness-hundreds-murdered-bodies-including-children-abandoned-streets
Full text: WFP races to support surge of Darfur refugees arriving in Chad, WFP press release, published July 11, 2023
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-races-support-surge-darfur-refugees-arriving-chad