2023-07-13 16:30:00
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Rapid Support Forces soldiers
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The United Nations Human Rights Office said that at least 87 people, some of them from the Masalit tribe, were buried in a mass grave in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
He added, in a statement on Thursday, that he had reliable information that the Rapid Support Forces were responsible for their deaths.
The local residents were forced to dispose of the bodies, including women and children, in an open area near the town of El Geneina, on the 20th and 21st of last June, according to the statement.
He added that some people died of untreated wounds, during a wave of violence launched by the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias, days after the killing of the governor of West Darfur state, Khamis Abkar.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in the same statement: “I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and individuals hors de combat, and am most appalled by the callous and disrespectful manner in which the dead have been dealt with, along with their families and communities.”
The international official called for a prompt and thorough investigation.
It was not immediately clear how many of the dead belonged to the Masalit tribe. However, Human Rights Watch said that at least 28 of the dead belonged to the Masalit tribe, accusing the Rapid Support Forces of being responsible for the killing, and indicated in a report that it had documented mass killings of civilians and the complete destruction of the town of “Mistrai” near El Geneina.
“incorrect accusation”
Officials of the Rapid Support Forces denied – in statements to the BBC – these accusations.
A spokesman for the Rapid Support Forces, Muhammad al-Mukhtar, told the BBC that his forces were not a party to the armed conflict in the region, noting that the clashes that erupted were tribal between the Arab tribes and the Masalit tribe.
The spokesman accused the Sudanese army of what he described as “exploiting the war in Khartoum and arming the tribes in the region,” which led to fueling the ethnic conflict, he said.
A spokesman for the Rapid Support Forces confirmed that his forces remained in their positions and did not intervene during the tribal clashes.
Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim, an advisor in the office of the Rapid Support Forces Commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti” told the BBC: “The Rapid Support Forces were not originally present in the village (Mistrai), which is located in the state of West Darfur.”
He added, “What took place in the town of (Mistray) was a civil war between the tribes present there and the Masalit tribe, and the same battles took place before in the city of El Geneina, and the Rapid Support Forces were not a party to the battles of this civil war, which I assure you are old and renewed.”
Human Rights Watch called on the warring parties in Sudan to stop attacking civilians, to allow safe access to aid, and to conduct an international investigation into these attacks.
Ibrahim criticized the work of Human Rights Watch in collecting testimonies and issuing this report.
He said, “Human Rights Watch was never at the scene of the events. It only listens to those who compete to complain, and therefore I confirm that the Rapid Support Forces were not present in this area, and there is not a single soldier affiliated with us carrying out any military operations outside the city of El Geneina on the borders.” West Darfur state.
He added, “Even the accident that led to the killing of the governor of West Darfur state – who belongs to this tribe – the Rapid Support Forces had no connection with it. Rather, what was done by a group of individuals because of the civil conflict in this region,” stressing that the accusation of Human Rights Watch for his “untrue” forces.
The Sudanese army and human rights organizations had accused the Rapid Support Forces of being responsible for the killing of the governor of West Darfur state, Khamis Abdullah Abkar, after he earlier accused the Rapid Support Forces and allied armed groups of committing acts of violence he described as “genocide”.
Ethnic-motivated violence has escalated in Darfur in recent weeks, coinciding with the war between rival military factions that broke out last April.
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