In a report published on Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias killed “at least thousands of people” in West Darfur state, calling it “crimes against humanity” and “genocide”.
RSF attacks on the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups between April and November 2023 were some of the worst atrocities in the ongoing civil war which started that April, the report added.
The attacks in el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, saw entire neighbourhoods housing primarily displaced Masalit communities looted, burned, shelled and razed to the ground, the rights group said.
Between June 2023 and April 2024, HRW interviewed more than 220 people in Chad, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. It said its researchers also reviewed and analysed more than 120 photographs and videos of the events, satellite imagery and documents shared by humanitarian groups to corroborate accounts of abuses.
According to news reports, the UN’s World Food Programme last week warned of the deteriorating situation in Darfur, where aid has been cut off as advancing RSF forces attempt to take control of el-Fasher, where an estimated 500,000 displaced civilians are sheltering.
