The UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide has sounded an alarm on an impending genocide in Sudan, especially in the volatile Darfur Region.
While briefing members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Alice Wairimu Nderitu succinctly said she had unequivocally raised an alarm about the ongoing situation in Sudan. She said genocide is preceded by risk factors and indicators.
“This situation today bears all the marks of risk of genocide, with strong allegations that this crime has already been committed. Civilians are far from protected. Civilian populations are targeted on the basis of identity,” she reported. “In Darfur and El Fasher, civilians are being attacked and killed because of the color of their skin, because of their ethnicity, because of who they are. They are also targeted with hate speech and with direct incitement to violence.”
Wairimu said she has publicly and severally raised concerns about the situation from the perspective of her mandate in the last twenty months.
“Ever since the conflict erupted in April 2023, alarms have been relentlessly raised of systematic and indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians in Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Gezira, among others,” she conveyed. “In October last year, I undertook a visit to Chad, including the eastern border with Sudan, aimed at collecting first-hand information from refugees from the West Darfur region.”
Wairimu added: “What I heard was horrifying. Refugees based in Farchana and Adre, many of them from the Masalit ethnic community, described the vicious violence they were subjected to and outspokenly alluded to elements which could indicate explicit intent to destroy their particular ethnic group.”
She said that intent to destroy is one of the key elements of the crime of genocide. Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the crime as any of a series of acts – Wairimu quoted- ‘committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.’
“Violence that has allegedly been inflicted upon them include, among others, persistent use of rape as a weapon of war and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; burning of entire villages; forced displacement; deprivation of conditions of life, including bombing of medical facilities and transportation, and deliberately limiting access to water and electricity,” she said. “This is accompanied by the use of derogatory language as blacks and as (‘slaves’) as an element of incitement to violence. Sexual and gender-based violence provides a clear gender dimension of this vicious violence, together with the targeting of young men and boys.”
According to the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, ethnically motivated attacks targeting these specific groups – the Masalit, and also the Fur and the Zaghawa – have been, and reportedly continue being, conducted primarily by RSF and allied armed Arab militias. They are reported to act in patterns whereby attacks against specific locations and individuals tend to be announced in advance, which could constitute indication of clear intent to destroy. Explicit calls to wage ‘religious war’ by the leader of the RSF go in the same direction.
“The situation in West Darfur clearly targets one part of the population (Masalit) – many fled to Chad, but many were killed on the way or in the conflict. Refugees arriving from Sudan, particularly in Chad, indicate that violence is based on ethnicity, including against Masalit,” she said. “I have also received reports by institutions collecting data on only hate speech and incitement of large-scale information operations aimed at supporting RSF activity, including glorification of war crimes. Such reports outline users operating from other countries as a source of such operations.”
“Witnesses and legal professionals involved in legal efforts to bring accountability for past violations are victims of targeted attacks,” Wairimu added.
She said prominent community leaders have been killed, and mass documented and leaders are calling on civilians to take up arms and that such calls are being amplified through social media.
According to Wairimu, the main parties to the conflict, RSF, and Sudan Armed Forces, continue to show disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law and they are not upholding their obligations.
“In addition, the lack of effective supply lines impacts communities in Darfur who have no or little access to life-saving humanitarian aid. Violence is only increasing. The protection presence that existed in the past with UNAMID concluded at the end of 2020, and the mandate to ‘assist peacebuilding, civilian protection and the rule of law’ by UNITAMS was terminated in December last year,” she stated. “Today reports from El Fasher raise well-grounded concerns about the risk of large-scale violence affecting thousands of people. Just last week, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Ms. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, alerted that ‘if the parties do not pull back from the brink’, the consequences will be devastating for the 800,000 people residing in El Fasher. I repeat, 800,000 people.”
Wairimu said most people in El Fasher are of African descent – they are African tribes and that early warning signs indicate that if the conflict continues, the risks of racially motivated attacks and killings will increase.
“The situation in West Darfur points to clear targeting of one part of the population, the Masalit. There are also reports of new Arab refugees leaving the area, which could also indicate ethnically motivated attacks targeting them,” she reported. “This is a list of risk factors and indicators for the crime of genocide. Genocide, the gravest of crimes.”
The special advisor said it is imperative that all possible actions aimed at the protection of innocent civilian populations, in El Fasher as in the entire territory of Sudan, are expedited to urgently stop ethnically motivated violence.
“Access to humanitarian assistance for populations in desperate need is essential. Urgent safe passage is necessary for civilians wishing to flee El Fasher. All possible attention and support for displaced populations in Sudan and the region is imperative,” Wairimu stated. “Even more tragically, this violence is not new. In Darfur, the same groups of people were targeted on the basis of their ethnicity, twenty years ago. In Chad, I saw the refugee camps they escaped to, side by side, one camp twenty years old and the other camp just some months old.”
She reported that the conflict has exacerbated the pre-existing ethnic divisions, encouraging more ethnically-tribally motivated killings, particularly in Darfur.
“Perpetrators of past violence have largely not been held accountable. Impunity for serious violations of international human rights, of genocide and related crimes, or of their incitement, constitutes a risk factor for the commission of further crimes. The absence of accountability for genocide and related crimes perpetrated in Darfur twenty years ago is contributing to the current episodes of horror,” Wairimu revealed and added: “It remains imperative that accountability for such crimes is ensured. Perpetrators should be brought before competent courts with jurisdiction and held accountable to break the cycle of impunity and violence.”
“Likewise, it is important that venues for accountability for the crimes being committed at the moment, not only in Darfur but in the entire territory of Sudan, are identified, promoted, and documented, including by supporting the work of those who are documenting what is happening,” she added.
According to Wairimu, the protection of civilians in Sudan cannot wait because the risk of genocide exists in the country, is real and growing, every single day.