ALBAWABA - In a new statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), it has been reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed thousands of civilians in West Darfur in early November 2023.
Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "The Rapid Support Forces’ latest episode of ethnically targeted killings in West Darfur, has the hallmarks of an organized campaign of atrocities against Massalit civilians,".
"The UN Security Council needs to stop ignoring the desperate need to protect Darfur civilians" Osman added. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), an estimated 800 civilians were killed in the Ardamata area attacks in early November.
Local rights monitors interviewed survivors who fled to Chad from Darfur and estimated the death toll, which included dozens killed on the route to Chad, to be between 1,300 and 2,000 people.
Escaping the atrocious war across the country, at least 8,000 people have fled into Chad, joining around 450,000, mostly women and children, displaced by attacks in West Darfur notably between April and June.
Videos dated November 4 from the Rapid Support Forces’ official X, formerly known as Twitter, account and geolocated by Human Rights Watch show Abdel Raheem Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF deputy commander and brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo in Ardamata celebrating with his forces the takeover of the Sudanese Armed Forces base, Relief Web reported.
The power struggle between the warring parties escalated to full-scale war as the country’s two military forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces leader and former Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo AKA as Hemedti.
Earlier in November, the UNHCR warned that escalating violence across the Darfur region in Sudan has sparked fears that atrocities committed two decades ago in Darfur could be repeated, voicing grave concern over the development.
The report mentioned that two decades ago, thousands were killed across Darfur and millions displaced in fighting between Sudanese Government forces backed by allied militia known as the Janjaweed on one side, and rebel groups resisting the autocratic rule of President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned in a statement saying: "Twenty years ago, the world was shocked by the terrible atrocities and human rights violations in Darfur. We fear a similar dynamic might be developing,".
