2024-01-23 01:29:41
Updated yesterday at 9:14 p.m.
Fighting has raged since April 15, 2023 between the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the Rapid Support Forces (FSR, paramilitary) of General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo, former number two in military power.
The conflict has left more than 13,000 dead, according to an estimate from the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled), on which the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) relies for its assessment.
“According to intelligence sources, between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in El-Geneina alone”, the capital of West Darfur, assures the committee of experts mandated by the UN Security Council to monitor the application of sanctions against Sudan.
The document, sent to the members of the Council, but not yet officially published, does not give an overall assessment, but describes in detail the “ethnic” violence in this city which fell into the hands of the RSF in June.
“The attacks were planned, coordinated and executed by the RSF and allied Arab militias”, who “deliberately targeted civilian neighborhoods […]displaced persons camps, schools, mosques, and hospitals, also looting homes and sites of international NGOs and the UN,” the experts write.
“The FSR and allied militias deliberately targeted the Massalit community”, the majority non-Arab ethnic group in the city, they add, also referring to snipers “placed by the FSR on the main roads” attacking civilians “without distinction , including women, pregnant women and young people.
More broadly, “in West Darfur”, the paramilitaries and their allies “have systematically violated international humanitarian law”.
Attacks against civilians, torture, rapes, mass arrests, forced displacements, looting, etc.: “some of these violations could correspond to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” say the experts.
The report also denounces violations of the arms embargo, noting that from July, thanks to resources from the gold trade, the FSR were able to deploy “heavy and/or sophisticated” weapons. » like drones. “This new firepower has had a massive impact on the balance of power in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.”
In this context, experts point the finger at several countries, notably the United Arab Emirates.
They thus consider “credible” the statements of the number two in the Sudanese army, General Yasser Atta, who in November accused the rich Gulf state of having sent weapons to the RSF.
The report notably mentions an arms supply route from Abu Dhabi via Chad, specifying that the Emirates “denied” these accusations in a letter sent to the committee of experts dated December 21.
In this region on the border with Chad, the Janjawids, ancestors of the FSR, are already accused of having perpetrated a “genocide” in the early 2000s, on behalf of the dictator of the time Omar al-Bashir.
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