HRW accuses RSF and Arab militias of executions and burning down a town in Western Darfur, Sudan

He says that the stories “echo the horror” of the war in Darfur two decades ago and calls on the ICC to investigate these crimes

July 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused on Tuesday the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias of summarily executing 28 members of the Massalit community in an attack carried out in May in the state of Western Darfur and has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate these crimes.

The NGO has indicated in a report that these armed groups broke into the town of Misterei on May 28, where thousands of people reside -mainly members of the Massalit community-, where they also killed and injured dozens of civilians, in the in the context of the conflict that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the RSF.

Thus, it has detailed that the assailants killed people in their homes, in the streets or in the places where they tried to hide, after which they opened fire on people who were trying to escape, injuring several children, and they dedicated themselves to looting and burning most of the city, causing thousands of people to flee to Chad.

“Since the conflict in Sudan erupted in abil, some of the worst atrocities have been committed in Western Darfur,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, crisis and conflict researcher at HRW. The totality of the town of Misterei demonstrates the need for an international response to the expansion of the conflict,” he argued.

In this sense, the organization has reiterated that the parties must end their attacks against civilians and allow safe access for aid, while insisting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should include these atrocities in its investigations in around the abuses committed in the Dafur region.

“The stories of those who have survived the recent attacks in West Darfur echo the horror, devastation and despair in Darfur 20 years ago,” said Gallopin, who insisted that the ICC “must investigate these appalling abuses while the RSF’s international and regional partners must sanction the RSF and Arab militia leaders responsible for these attacks.”

HRW has stressed that it has interviewed 29 survivors of the attack who managed to cross the border with Chad and that it has analyzed satellite images that indicate that six other towns located in the surroundings of Misterei –including Molle, Murnei and Gokor– were also set on fire. . It has also interviewed 37 refugees from other areas of West Darfur who have reported similar abuses.

Along these lines, he has stated that there are visible cases of deliberate fires in the state capital, El Geneina, which mainly affect places where thousands of people displaced by previous attacks were living, without the RSF having spoken to questions from HRW. about these incidents.

In the case of the May 28 attack, members of the RSF and Arab militias surrounded the city on motorcycles, trucks or on horseback, after which they clashed with Massalit self-defense groups. “The RSF and the Arabs shot us from behind,” said a 76-year-old man. “I saw people running, feeling shot and falling to the ground near a grocery store,” he recounted.

The attackers chased people who tried to hide in schools and the mosque, while many women and children, as well as some members of self-defense groups who were injured in the fighting, managed to escape to a school compound in the north of the town. that it was searched class by class by the attackers, who summarily executed the adult men.

THOUSANDS DISPLACED BY VIOLENCE

Two women who managed to take shelter in a school have stated that the attackers executed three men and opened fire indiscriminately in a classroom, wounding three women and two children. “They asked about the young people who protected the town,” said one of them. “Where are the men? Where are the children? We love them all. We want to kill them. Why don’t you run away and leave the country? Why are you still here? What are you waiting for?” they asked, according to this story. .

Later, the attackers looted residents’ properties and stole cattle, seeds, cash, gold, mobile phones and furniture, after which they set fire to the houses. “The whole city was covered in smoke,” said a 35-year-old nurse, a version confirmed by satellite images.

Residents have located the bodies of 59 people in mass graves, though local officials have put the death toll at 97, including members of self-defense groups. HRW has confirmed the death of at least 40 civilians as a result of the attack in Misterei.

Finally, HRW has reported that around 217,000 people have arrived in Chad since the outbreak of the fighting and has specified that around 98 percent of those registered are members of the Massalit community, while asking the Security Council of United Nations to demand safe and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid in Darfur.

The current hostilities between the Army and the paramilitaries broke out in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF into the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition open after the overthrow in 2019 of Omar Hasan al Bashir, damaged by the coup in October 2021, in which the prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok, was overthrown.

The war has so far left more than 1,100 dead, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, but the real figures could be much higher considering the inter-communal violence unleashed in the Kordofan and Darfur regions.

In addition, more than 2.9 million people have been displaced, including nearly 700,000 who have fled to neighboring countries, according to data released last week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), amid reports of daily atrocities and sexual abuse of on a large scale against the women and girls of the country.