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UN: Masalit communities in Darfur suffered six days of terror

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has voiced alarm over reports of another ethnically motivated mass attack in the Darfur region of Sudan, amidst the ongoing conflict between the  army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

Altaghyeer: Agencies

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has voiced alarm over reports of killing of hundreds of ethnic Masalit civilians earlier this month in Ardamata town, West Darfur, by the RSF and their allied Arab militia.

“Ardamata marked the second reported mass attack by the RSF and its allied Arab militia against Masalit civilians in a matter of months. Between May and June, hundreds of Masalit men, women, and children – including the governor of West Darfur Khamis Abakar– were killed,” said OHCHR Spokesman Jeremy Laurence in a press conference in Geneva Friday.

“Preliminary information we have obtained from survivors and witnesses suggests Masalit civilians suffered six days of terror at the hands of the RSF and its allied militia after they took control of the Sudanese army’s base in Ardamata on 4 November,”

Laurence said some of the victims were summarily executed or burnt alive, women and girls were reportedly subjected to sexual violence and thousands of people have been displaced, with some fleeing across the border to Chad.

He said the RSF and its allied militias reportedly looted property at Ardamata and another IDP camp, Dorti, as well as the Al-Kabri neighbourhood, all of which are mainly inhabited by the Masalit community.

IDPs were tortured and many executed, their bodies left unburied on the streets, hundreds of men were arrested and taken to various RSF-run detention camps. Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown, laurence said, adding that“Such attacks may constitute crimes under international law.”

He also pointed to serious allegations that in revenge attacks, some Arab civilians were reportedly attacked by members of the Masalit militias.

He reiterated the call made in June by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urging the RSF leadership to unequivocally condemn and stop the killings, other violence and hate speech targeted at civilians, based on their ethnicity.

Amid worrying reports of an imminent RSF assault on El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, we remind them and all other parties to the conflict to respect their international humanitarian law obligations to ensure protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” he said.

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