The European Union’s (EU) chief diplomat on Sunday expressed shock at reports indicating that more than a thousand Sudanese were killed this month in West Darfur State in what could amount to an ethnic cleansing campaign committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell warned of the danger of “another genocide” after the conflict there between 2003 and 2008 killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.
“These latest atrocities appear to be part of a broader ethnic cleansing campaign committed by the Rapid Support Forces to eliminate the non-Arab Masalit tribe in West Darfur, and come after the first wave of acts of violence,” he said.
According to the statement, reliable eyewitness reports are indicating that more than 1,000 members of the Masalit tribe were killed in Ardamata, Western Darfur, within just over two days of major attacks carried out by the RSF and its allied militias.
The European Union chief envoy stressed that the warring parties in Sudan must protect citizens, saying that it is working with the International Criminal Court to document violations “to ensure accountability.”
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta Salami, said on Friday that “what is happening is close to absolute evil,” referring to reports of young girls being raped in front of their mothers.
Meanwhile, a Sudanese lawyer and legal researcher, Abdel Basset Al-Haj, said that what happened in El Geneina and Ardamata in West Darfur State is an extension of a series of crimes directed against non-Arab groups by Arabs in the RSF.
Al-Haj told Radio Tamazuj Monday that what happened in 2002 and 2003 will happen again in 2023 in multiple areas, especially in the city of El Geneina, and that the violations against the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups are serious crimes that worry the international community.
“The Masalit were targeted in 6 months ago and they are still currently being targeted again in Ardemata,” he stated.
Al-Haj called for an end to atrocities and for perpetrators to be brought to fair trials.
More than 10,000 people have been killed since fighting erupted between the army and RSF in Khartoum before spilling over to the rest of the country according to a tally issued by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project or (ACLED).