Targeted killings of civilians and ethnic cleansing in western Sudan increasingly resemble the horrors of 20 years ago, survivors say
ADRE REFUGEE CAMP, Chad — Twenty years after the Darfur genocide began, the children of those who survived are fleeing a new wave of violence that increasingly resembles the 2003 mass slaughter.
Like their parents two decades ago, they’re escaping towns in Sudan’s western Darfur region that are being burned to the ground in what appear to be coordinated attacks, leaving behind their family members who have been killed. Once again, they say they’re being targeted by Arab paramilitary groups for their non-Arab background. Some men and boys have been shot on the spot if they admit to belonging to the Masalit ethnic group, according to survivors, and those who escape may never be able to return.
t the cramped Adre refugee camp in neighboring Chad, 11-year-old Essam Muhammad was holding his 13-month-old sister. Twenty years ago, Muhammad’s mother, Fatima, lost her parents in the genocide, and now Muhammad too has lost his mother.
In tears, he recalled the moment his mother’s life slipped away last month. Shot by a sniper in the stomach in western Darfur, just a few miles from the border, her last whispered words to Muhammad were: “From now on, you’re responsible for your little sister.”
In interviews, more than two dozen survivors in this and other refugee camps shared similar accounts, adding to a mounting body of evidence that suggests Darfur faces a new wave of ethnic cleansing. The region has seen a surge in targeted killings and forced displacement since 2019 that was attributed to Sudan’s Arab paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Masalit leaders, in turn, have at times been accused by Arabs of provoking violence.
But the bloodletting escalated dramatically after fighting broke out in April around the country between the forces of two rival Sudanese generals who have been vying for power in the capital Khartoum. Within days, fighters linked to the RSF — a group widely seen to have roots in the Janjaweed militias accused by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity in Darfur two decades ago — went on new killing sprees in predominantly Masalit neighborhoods in western Darfur, survivors say.
In interviews, more than two dozen survivors in this and other refugee camps shared similar accounts, adding to a mounting body of evidence that suggests Darfur faces a new wave of ethnic cleansing. The region has seen a surge in targeted killings and forced displacement since 2019 that was attributed to Sudan’s Arab paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Masalit leaders, in turn, have at times been accused by Arabs of provoking violence.
But the bloodletting escalated dramatically after fighting broke out in April around the country between the forces of two rival Sudanese generals who have been vying for power in the capital Khartoum. Within days, fighters linked to the RSF — a group widely seen to have roots in the Janjaweed militias accused by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity in Darfur two decades ago — went on new killing sprees in predominantly Masalit neighborhoods in western Darfur, survivors say.
In interviews, more than two dozen survivors in this and other refugee camps shared similar accounts, adding to a mounting body of evidence that suggests Darfur faces a new wave of ethnic cleansing. The region has seen a surge in targeted killings and forced displacement since 2019 that was attributed to Sudan’s Arab paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Masalit leaders, in turn, have at times been accused by Arabs of provoking violence.
But the bloodletting escalated dramatically after fighting broke out in April around the country between the forces of two rival Sudanese generals who have been vying for power in the capital Khartoum. Within days, fighters linked to the RSF — a group widely seen to have roots in the Janjaweed militias accused by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes against humanity in Darfur two decades ago — went on new killing sprees in predominantly Masalit neighborhoods in western Darfur, survivors say.
Juma Dawood Musa, 42.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the humanitarian research lab at the Yale School of Public Health, which contributes research to the State Department’s Sudan Conflict Observatory programme, said it is increasingly clear that the attacks committed by the RSF in Sudan may constitute crimes against humanity and that “no one is stopping them.” “Very few people are making it out at this point” who can share their accounts of the violence with the world, Raymond said. But he added that satellite imagery shows that entire urban neighbourhoods and villages have been burned to the ground in recent weeks in what appear to be efforts to permanently displace their populations. Last week, the U.N. human rights office said in a statement that it had “credible information” that 87 people, including Masalits, were buried in mass graves outside Geneina in mid-June on orders of the RSF. Among the victims were women and children, the United Nations said. The RSF has denied responsibility for these killings and similar incidents. RSF officials did not respond to requests for comment on this article. In another incident, fires destroyed an area equivalent to the size of 280 soccer fields in the town of Murnei three weeks ago, according to the Sudan Conflict Observatory. The “velocity and scale” of arson attacks attributed to the RSF and aligned militias appear to still be on the rise, Raymond said. How the democratic hopes of the Sudan Spring went so horribly wrong The Darfur genocide that began in 2003 was carried out during the dictatorial rule of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was later implicated by the International Criminal Court in ordering the mass killings. His ouster in 2019 amid large popular protests led to the formation of a hybrid military-civilian government, which in turn was overthrown by the two generals who are now fiercely battling for domination: Sudan’s military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
When their fragile power-sharing deal collapsed in April, fighting erupted in Khartoum and quickly spread to Darfur. Many of the attacks have involved the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure and local populations. In interviews, more than a dozen survivors from Geneina described targeted killings of unarmed neighbours and relatives in predominantly Masalit neighbourhoods. Their testimony matches similar accounts from various towns in Darfur collected by human rights researchers in recent weeks. Doctors have reported seeing an influx of women who have been raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Survivors say that RSF forces and its allies have used artillery to strike civilian buildings, including many refugee shelters. Suspected RSF fighters shot residents in the streets or went door to door, executing all men they encountered, according to survivors, who recognised some of the attackers as neighbours known to be RSF fighters or spotted cars and uniforms typically associated with the RSF. Sudan’s rapid decline into war evokes Somalia’s catastrophic collapse. While survivors said the atrocities in Darfur have been primarily committed by the RSF and its allies, they also blamed the Sudanese army for shelling their districts during clashes with the RSF, resulting in civilian injuries and deaths. Ten survivors also described being turned away when they sought refuge at the regional headquarters of the central reserve police, which is aligned with the military. “They refused to let us into their compound and told us to leave,” said Juma Dawood Musa, 42.