Paramilitary forces and their allies that have been fighting in Sudan are accused of carrying out ethnic killings and rapes to control the western Darfur region of the country, which amounts to war crimes, according to a recent United Nations report.
Displaced people fleeing from al-Jazirah state arrive in Gedaref in the east of war-torn Sudan on December 22, 2023. The brutal conflict broke out in mid-April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing more than 12,000 people and displacing millions.
The report from the UN Security Council frames a grim picture of brutality against Africans has been perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces, which is predominantly Arab. The report also states that the RSF has gained control in four of Darfur's five states and has even created a complex financial network that involves dozens of companies.
Sudan's recent spat of violence began in April 2023 when the paramilitary forces led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke away from the Sudanese Army, which is led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan.
Starting in the streets of Khartoum, the fighting quickly spread to other parts of the country. However, reports the Associated Press, the fighting is largely ethnic-based as the RSF has launched attacks on African civilians, the Masalit in particular.
Sudan has been suffering violence for decades and Darfur has been in the international spotlight for some of the most explicit examples of genocide and war crimes in the 21st century. The Janjaweed Arab militants have largely targeted civilians in Central and East Africa. That legacy lives on in the RSF.
In January, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said their grounds to believe both sides committed genocide and war crimes in Darfur.
The ICC also believes that Darfur is currently experiencing its worst violence since 2005. The conflict is causing a humanitarian crisis on a morbidly grand scale and has displaced 6.8 million people. 1.4 million have fled the country, with 555,000 of those fleeing to neighboring Chad.
Both the Sudanese government and the RSF are in possession of heavy artillery and have been accused of shelling highly populated areas. This has caused a breakdown of water, sanitation, education, and healthcare infrastructure throughout the country.
The report, which is 47 pages in total, says both combatants targeted sites in Darfur where displaced people found shelter, civilian neighborhoods, and medical facilities.
Intelligence sources have said that the West Darfur capital, Geneina, has been the site of up to 15,000 civilian deaths. It further states the pervasiveness of sexual violence being used as a weapon by the RSF and allied militia groups.
"Racial slurs toward the Masalit and non-Arab community formed part of the attacks," the panel said. "Neighborhoods and homes were continuously attacked, looted, burned and destroyed."
