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UNICEF-supplied sheeting covering a home in the Abu Shouk refugee camp in North Darfur Alamy Stock Photo

UN urges action to stop 'wanton killings' in Sudan's Darfur region

Two months into the fighting in Sudan the United Nations has warned the conflict has taken an ‘ethnic dimension’ in the Darfur region.

THE UNITED NATIONS called for immediate action to stop “wanton killings” of people fleeing El Geneina today, the capital of West Darfur state, by Arab militias aided by paramilitary forces.

For more than two months, the Sudanese army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The deadliest violence has raged in Darfur, a vast western region on the border with Chad where the United Nations has warned the conflict has taken an “ethnic dimension”.

“We are gravely concerned that such wanton killings are ongoing and urge immediate action to halt them,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.

“People fleeing El Geneina must be guaranteed safe passage and humanitarian agencies allowed to access to the area to collect the remains of those killed,” she added.

The Geneva-based UN rights office said people who escaped to Chad had given “horrifying accounts of armed ‘Arab’ militia backed by the Rapid Support Forces killing people fleeing El Geneina on foot”.

It said witnesses had given “corroborating accounts” of Arab militia targeting men from the non-Arab Masalit people.

“All those interviewed also spoke of seeing dead bodies scattered along the road – and the stench of decomposition,” it said.

“Several people spoke off seeing dozens of bodies in an area referred to as Shukri” about 10 kilometres from Sudan’s border with Chad.

The UN rights office said that all but two of the 16 people it interviewed testified that they had witnessed “summary executions” and the targeting of civilians on the road from El Geneina to the border between 15 and 16 June.

The United States said last week that up to 1,100 people had been killed in El Geneina, in a statement that attributed the atrocities “primarily” to the RSF paramilitary force.

In its statement, the UN rights office said El Geneina had become “uninhabitable”, and that essential infrastructure had been destroyed and movement of aid to the city remained blocked.

It called on the RSF leadership to “immediately, unequivocally condemn and stop the killing of people fleeing El Geneina.

“Those responsible for the killings and other violence must be held accountable,” it said.

“We urge the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor between Chad and El Geneina, and safe passage for civilians out of areas affected by the hostilities.”

 – © AFP 2023

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    Mute Tim Henchin
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    Nov 16th 2011, 9:01 AM

    ………. what is the betting that not one of them will have a legitimate mandate. We live in a post-democratic age, it is disturbing to see how many accepted this.

    We have the man who fudged Greece’s books, so they could get in to the Euro, while he was the head of their banking system made leader. It is like having Sean Fitzpatrick rammed in as leader of this state by Europe.

    It will either go down in history as the start of a dark but temporary blot on European democratic history or else as a great day for Europe, written by our new technocratic masters in the future, the corporatization of the continent. There used to be a name for the merging of corporate power and State control in to one entity. A predecessor of this man invented it.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnTOiso08HM

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    Mute Uncle Mort
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    Nov 16th 2011, 9:40 AM

    Good link Tim,thanks for sharing it.
    The mention of the ‘intense talks’ by Monti begs the question as the what bribes were offered, by bribes I mean offers of position and power.

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