Mass Grave Discovered in West Darfur, Sudan

UN Human Rights Office Reveals Disturbing Findings

Introduction

The UN Human Rights Office announced Thursday that at least 87 people, some of them from the Masalit tribe, were buried in a mass grave in West Darfur, Sudan. The responsibility for this lies with the Rapid Support Forces.

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the killing of civilians and hors de combat”, adding: “I am also appalled at the cruel and humiliating way in which the victims, their families, and communities were treated.”

Waves of Attacks

Witnesses and human rights groups in the western city of El Geneina reported waves of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces and Arab tribal groups against the non-Arab Masalit tribe. The attacks included shooting at close range.

The statement said that local residents were forced to dispose of the bodies, which included women and children, in an open area near El Geneina between 20 and 21 June.

The agency said in a statement that several people died from untreated wounds, and a representative of the Rapid Support Forces could not be contacted.

A UN spokesman said it was impossible to determine the number of Masalites killed.

“Atrocities”

The ethnically motivated killings have raised fears of a repeat of the atrocities committed in Darfur since 2003, when the Janjaweed militia, of which the JSF was formed, helped the government put down an uprising of non-Arab groups in Darfur, killing some 300,000 people.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah told Reuters: “What the militias have committed in El Geneina amounts to war crimes and these crimes must not go unpunished. The project is a racist project and a project of ethnic cleansing.”

Ethnic bloodshed has escalated in recent weeks, coinciding with a war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces that began in April and is pushing the country to the brink of civil war.