In Sudan, reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other crimes are emerging from Al-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city in the western Darfur region last week, UNN writes, citing The Guardian.
Details
A video released by local activists shows a militant shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at close range.
Various videos shared by pro-democracy activists allegedly show dozens of people lying dead on the ground next to burned vehicles. The video has not been verified.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Joint Forces, allied with the Sudanese army, accused the Rapid Support Forces of executing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in recent days.
The claim could not be verified, but the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which monitors the war in Sudan using open-source intelligence and satellite imagery, said on Monday that it had found evidence supporting alleged mass killings by the Rapid Support Forces.
On Tuesday, the Yale lab said the city was "likely undergoing a systematic and deliberate process of ethnic cleansing of indigenous non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti communities through forced displacement and extrajudicial executions." This included, allegedly, "door-to-door city clearing operations," the report said.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said on Sunday that they had seized control of the main army base in the city and issued a statement saying they had "extended control over the city of El Fasher from the clutches of mercenaries and militias."
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Sudan's army commander-in-chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on Monday that his troops had withdrawn from El Fasher "to a safer place," acknowledging the loss of the city.
The Rapid Support Forces have been fighting a bloody civil war with the army since April 2023 after a power struggle between the two sides. The fighting has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced more than 14 million.
In recent weeks, fears have grown for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city by an 18-month siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said on Monday that there was a growing risk of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities" in El Fasher. His office said it was "receiving numerous disturbing reports that the Rapid Support Forces are committing atrocities, including extrajudicial executions."
The UN Human Rights Office reported receiving reports of "extrajudicial executions of civilians attempting to flee, with signs of ethnic motivation in the killings," as well as videos showing "dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters who accuse them of being Sudanese army fighters."
News agencies were unable to contact civilians in the city, where, according to the Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate, communications, including satellite networks, had been cut off due to media blackouts.
Addition
After an 18-month siege, the strategic city of Al-Fasher in the Darfur region fell under the control of the paramilitary group "Rapid Support Forces" (RSF). Amid reports of mass civilian killings, ethnic violence, and a humanitarian catastrophe, Sudan is experiencing one of the most tragic episodes of its civil war.