There are “risk factors and indicators of the crime of genocide”
September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, has warned of the “existential terror” facing the population of the Sudanese town of El Fasher in the face of the multi-pronged offensive against the town launched by the paramilitary Rapid Response Forces (RSF).
“The multi-pronged assault launched by the RSF from at least three directions has created a feeling of existential terror among the civilian population,” warned Nderitu, who has particularly raised the alarm about the situation in the Abu Shuk displaced persons camp, which is “on the brink of disaster.”
Nderitu said the “recent escalation of hostilities” had triggered a “maelstrom of violence that threatens to consume everything in its path and leave a trail of devastation and despair in its wake.”
The genocide advisor also warned of the “identity dimension” of violence and the presence of “risk factors and indicators of the crime of genocide.”
He also warned of the existence of Internet posts that encourage these attacks in El Fasher and other parts of Sudan. “This is extremely disturbing. Encouraging the actions of criminals only encourages violence. Those responsible must be held accountable and not glorified for their actions. We cannot further fuel hatred, division and violence in the country,” he said.
“I repeat: the fighting must stop immediately. This terrible violence that has caused so much insurmountable suffering must end as a matter of urgency,” he added.
Sudan is in the throes of a civil war following hostilities that broke out in April 2023 amid heightened tensions over the integration of the RSF paramilitaries into the armed forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and revive the open transition following the 2019 overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, damaged by the coup d’état of October 2021, in which the Prime Minister of Unity, Abdallah Hamdok, was overthrown.
Add Comment