Sudanese government renews campaigns of killings in Darfur: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Sudanese government counterinsurgency force has carried out two campaigns of killings and mass rape in the Darfur region since early 2014, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, September 9, in a report that evoked the atrocities committed there by the feared janjaweed militia a decade ago, the New York Times reports.

The 88-page report, based on interviews with 212 victims and witnesses, describes in detail the accusations against the Sudanese unit, known as the Rapid Support Forces, and says they amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Darfur, the rebellious region in western Sudan, became known in the mid-2000s for systematic killings, rape, forced relocations and other crimes committed against mainly non-Arab tribes by government forces and their nomadic militia allies, known as the janjaweed.

As many as 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003, according to United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million people have been uprooted in what is widely considered a modern-day genocide.

The worst of the mass killings appears to have eased. But the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir — who has been indicted in connection with Darfur atrocities, including on charges of genocide, by the International Criminal Court — has escalated attacks against the insurgency there in recent years.

In one attack, carried out in January in the town of Golo, the report quotes witnesses as saying that they saw killings, rapes, widespread beatings and looting, including the rape of women in the town hospital.

The report also quotes defectors from the Rapid Support Forces and affiliated government units who say commanders ordered them to commit these crimes.

Human Rights Watch called on the Sudanese government to disband the force and prosecute those responsible. It also called for strengthened efforts by the United Nations to prevent such attacks.

There have also been reports in recent weeks that Bashir might try to attend the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York this month. But diplomats have said such a visit is highly unlikely.