Genocide in Sudan: A Continuing Humanitarian Crisis
By Bhaswati Bhattacharjee
Bodies are scattered near homes in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, on June 16, 2023. A United Nations report reviewed by Reuters on Friday indicates that as many as 15,000 people were killed in the city last year due to ethnic violence. (Photo - AFP)
Fourteen months after civil war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April 2023, Sudan is undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis caused by war and genocide.
Since the civil war began, ACLED has recorded 5,550 violent incidents and over 15,550 fatalities in Sudan. Khartoum has had the most fatalities. 32% of civilian fatalities in Sudan were in Darfur.
RSF Arab militias have focused their genocide against the Masalit people in West Darfur. Masalit leader Khamis Abakar was assassinated by the RSF on the same day he accused the RSF of genocide. Over 900,000 Masalit and Erenga people have fled into Chad. UN experts accuse the RSF and its allies of war crimes.
Since April 15, 2023, an estimated 7,262,187 people have been internally displaced within Sudan. Over 2,170,592 people have fled to neighboring countries. In Geneina, West Darfur, RSF massacres since late April 2023 have resulted in the deaths of at least 38,100 Masalit people. By July 2023, a Masalit leader claimed that the death toll in West Darfur had exceeded 10,000, with 80% of Geneina’s residents having fled. Massacres occurred in towns like Tawila and Misterei, and a mass grave containing 87 bodies was found in Geneina. The RSF has murdered nearly all Masalit intellectuals, politicians, professionals, and nobility. The RSF goal is to drive all black Africans out of Darfur.
The UK government, witnesses, and observers describe the violence as akin to genocide, primarily targeting non-Arab groups such as the Masalit. The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, in their April 2024 report, stated that based on “clear and convincing evidence, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have committed and are committing genocide against the Masalit” and they also “have committed and are committing direct and public incitement to genocide.” The atrocities committed by the RSF in West Darfur targeting non-Arab Masalit members can only be interpreted as “an intent to destroy the Masalit group in whole or in part.”
Genocide Watch recommends:
The systematic RSF massacres of members of the Masalit ethnic group should be recognized as genocide since they violate Genocide Convention, Article II (a) (Killing members of the group), (b) (Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group), and (c) (Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part).
The warring parties should be pressured to reach an immediate ceasefire and negotiated end of the war.
Foreign sources of funding and weapons must stop. Arms embargo violators must be sanctioned.
The RSF must be held accountable for committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Reported cases of mass killing, torture, and forcible displacement should be investigated, and arrest warrants should be issued against the perpetrators by the ICC and Sudanese courts.
The RSF must be forced to ensure humanitarian access to all people, without hindrance.
Safe travel routes for civilians should be established by the warring factions, especially the RSF.
A UN Human Rights Council mandated international fact-finding mission for Sudan should be created.
The African Union and the UN Security Council should re-establish a UN Peacekeeping force in Sudan.