The NGO says that the actions of the paramilitaries rule out that “these crimes will stop without a firm global response”
Nov. 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused this Monday the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of murders, illegal detentions and rapes during their attacks in the state of Gezira, which is why it has insisted on the need to that the United Nations deploys a mission to protect the civilian population in the African country.
Thus, he highlighted that since its leader for Gezira, Abu Aqla Kikil, defected from the RSF on October 20, the group has carried out attacks against at least 30 towns, which has also caused the flight of some 130,000 people from these areas seeking safer places under the control of the Sudanese Army.
“This massive spike in heinous attacks by the RSF against civilians should end any remaining hope that these crimes would stop without a strong global response,” said Mohamed Osman, HRW’s Sudan researcher.
“The minimal action of the UN Security Council is clearly failing to protect civilians. The deployment of a mission to protect civilians is urgently necessary,” he maintained, in the midst of the war unleashed in April 2023 between the Army and the RSF, until then part of the country’s security apparatus.
The RSF took control of the capital of Gezira, Wad Madani, in December 2023, since then perpetrating serious human rights abuses, including murders, kidnappings and sexual violence. Since Kikil’s defection, the group has increased its revenge attacks, including against members of his tribe.
In this sense, a 55-year-old woman who lived in Tambul reports that the militants opened fire on several houses after breaking into the town during the day of October 22. “I saw an RSF soldier shoot a man in the chest,” he says, before adding that they were ordered to leave the scene and that “anyone who stays will not be considered a civilian.”
Thus, another resident assures that the members of the RSF “were furious.” “They kept asking me if I had a relationship with Kikil or if I knew where his family is.” “They threatened to kill anyone who was related to him,” he adds. The attacks on Tambul and clashes with the Army in the area left 300 civilians dead, according to data analyzed by HRW.
The RSF later attacked Al Sireha, where they clashed with armed residents. The fighting left some 125 civilians dead. “We saw piles of bodies, including two children, near one of the irrigation canals,” said a resident who had to flee the scene hours after the assault began.
Local observers reported the arrest of more than 150 people in Al Sireha, while two videos published on the social network Facebook and verified by the non-governmental organization show members of the RSF arresting nearly a hundred men in the town.
COMPLAINTS ABOUT SEXUAL VIOLENCE
HRW has highlighted that the RSF militiamen, declared by Khartoum as a terrorist group, have also subjected women and girls to sexual violence during the attacks, with at least 25 cases of rape and gang rape documented by the Strategic Initiative. for Women in the Horn of Africa.
The civil organization, which covers the situation in the region, affirms that among the victims there were at least ten girls, before adding that it has documentation on six cases in which the survivors of these events subsequently committed suicide.
The United Nations said on October 30, citing members of Sudan’s health teams, that “more than 27 women and girls between the ages of six and 60” had been victims of “rape and sexual assault.”
For this reason, HRW has emphasized that the United Kingdom, which is leading the case on Sudan in the UN Security Council and also holds the rotating presidency during the month of November, should encourage action in the body to address the deepening of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
“The UK, as the lead organizer on Sudan, needs to step up at this time of crisis and ensure that the calls of those who desperately need protection in Sudan are not ignored,” Osman said. “World and regional leaders cannot afford to be absent given the alarming patterns,” he concluded.
Sudan is mired in a civil war following hostilities that broke out in April 2023 within the framework of increased tensions over the integration of the RSF within the Armed Forces, a key part of a signed agreement in December 2022 to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition opened after the 2019 overthrow of Omar Hasan al Bashir, damaged by the coup d’état of October 2021, in which the then transition minister, Abdullah Hamdok, was overthrown. .
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