At least 87 buried in Sudan mass grave, including women, children - UN
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[July 13, 2023]
By Emma Farge and Khalid Abdelaziz
GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. human rights office said on Thursday at least
87 people including women and children had been buried in a mass grave
in Sudan's West Darfur, saying it had credible information they were
killed by the country's Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
RSF officials denied any involvement, saying the paramilitary group was
not a party to the conflict in West Darfur.
Ethnically motivated bloodshed has escalated in recent weeks in step
with fighting between rival military factions that erupted in April and
has brought the country to the brink of civil war. In El Geneina,
witnesses and rights groups have reported waves of attacks by the RSF
and Arab militias against the non-Arab Masalit people, including
shootings at close range.
"According to credible information gathered by the Office, those buried
in the mass grave were killed by RSF and their allied militia around
13-21 June...," the U.N. statement said.
Local people were forced to dispose of the bodies including those of
women and children in the shallow grave in an open area near the city
between June 20-21, it added. Some of the people had died from untreated
injuries, it said.
"I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and hors de
combat individuals, and I am further appalled by the callous and
disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities,
were treated," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk
in the same statement, calling for an investigation.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/13/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_NILA_012823.png)
An RSF senior official who declined to be identified said it "completely
denies any connection to the events in West Darfur as we are not party
to it, and we did not get involved in a conflict as the conflict is a
tribal one."
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![](../images/071323PIX/news_a91.jpg)
Sudanese people, who fled the violence
in their country and newly arrived, wait to be registered at the
camp near the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad April 26,
2023. REUTERS/Mahamat Ramadane/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/13/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_060123.png)
Another RSF source said it was being accused due to political
motivations from the Masalit and others. He reiterated that the
group was ready to participate in an investigation and to hand over
any of its forces found to have broken the law.
It was not possible to determine exactly what portion of the dead
were Masalits, a U.N. spokesperson added.
The ethnic killings have raised fears of a repeat of the atrocities
perpetuated in Darfur after 2003, when "Janjaweed" militias from
which the RSF was formed helped the government crush a rebellion by
mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur, killing some 300,000 people.
Sudanese civilians have fled the area on foot, some having been
killed or shot as they escaped.
"This report is a good first step, but more efforts are needed to
uncover more violations," said Ibrahim, a refugee in neighbouring
Chad, who asked to withhold his last name for fear of retribution.
Army spokesperson Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah told Reuters the
incident "rises to the level of war crimes and these kinds of crimes
should not pass without accountability."
"This rebel militia is not against the army but against the Sudanese
citizen, and its project is a racist project and a project of ethnic
cleansing," he said.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Khalid Abdelaziz in Dubai;
Additional reporting by Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; Editing by Rachel
More and William Maclean)
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