Sudan atrocities are ‘hallmarks of genocide’, UN says

A UN fact-finding mission has determined that evidence of atrocities carried out during the siege and takeover of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher points to genocide. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured el-Fasher, located in the western region of Darfur, at the end of October after an 18-month blockade. It was one of the most brutal chapters in Sudan’s nearly three-year civil war and triggered widespread international outrage.

This is the closest the UN has come to declaring that genocide is being carried out by RSF fighters in Darfur during the current conflict. The RSF has not commented on the report but has denied previous such accusations. “The body of evidence we collected — including the prolonged siege, starvation and denial of humanitarian assistance, followed by mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance, systematic humiliation and perpetrators’ own declarations – leaves only one reasonable inference,” said fact-finding mission expert Mona Rishmawi.

“The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El-Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide.” The report concludes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed, including killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part. The investigators were not able to visit el-Fasher but based their report on more than 320 interviews with survivors, statements from RSF commanders and verified videos and satellite images.

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Calling the findings “truly horrific”, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she would take the report’s conclusions to the UN Security Council on Thursday. In a statement she said there must be international criminal investigations to ensure accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims, and an end to the arms flow feeding the conflict. Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 out of a power struggle between the regular army and the RSF over how and whether the paramilitaries would integrate into the security forces. It evolved into a country-wide conflict fuelled by longstanding local grievances and ethnic divisions.

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