Between 10,000 and 15,000 people have been killed since April in Darfur, in western Sudan, where paramilitaries allied with Arab militias have committed violations that could amount to
"crimes against humanity"
, according to an expert report from the UN seen Monday January 22 by AFP.
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.
“War crimes or crimes against humanity”
The document, sent to members of the Council but not yet officially published, does not give an overall assessment, but describes in detail the
“ethnic”
violence in this town which fell into the hands of the FSR 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, looting also houses and sites of international NGOs and the UN
,” write the experts.
“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
“systematically violated international humanitarian law”
.
Attacks against civilians, torture, rapes, mass arrests, forced displacements, looting...:
"some of these violations could correspond to war crimes or crimes against humanity"
, say the experts.