Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village, a medical source and witnesses said on Friday (August 16, 2024), in an attack that followed U.S.-sponsored talks aimed at ending 16 months of devastating war.

The assault occurred in Jalgini village in the State of Sennar on Thursday (August 15, 2024).

“We received 55 dead and dozens of wounded at the hospital on Thursday, and 25 of them died on Friday, bringing the death toll to 80,” a source at Jalgini’s medical centre told AFP.

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A survivor said the paramilitaries attacked on Thursday (August 15, 2024) morning.

“Yesterday morning, three military vehicles attacked Jalgini. The residents resisted, prompting the retreat of the paramilitaries, who then returned with dozens of vehicles,” a Jalgini resident, who took his wounded son to the hospital added.

“They opened fire, torching homes and killing numerous people,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “On Friday, some bodies were still strewn on the street.”

Ceasefire talks began on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) in Geneva, hosted by the United States, Saudi, and Swiss mediators, though the Sudanese army refused to take part.

Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have failed to produce an agreement to end the fighting.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan’s regular army, captured the Sennar State capital of Sinja in June.

Since then, fighting in Sennar has displaced nearly 726,000 people, according to the United Nations agency the International Organization for Migration.

Many of them had fled the war in other parts of the northeast African country.

The State connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central State of Al-Jazira, the vast western Darfur region and large swathes of Kordofan in the south.

The war pits Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

It has pushed the country of 48 million to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations, and killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

More than 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, most in areas facing worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting spreads.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.

Sudanese refugees who fled the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and newly arrived ride their donkeys looking for space to temporarily settle, near the border between Sudan and Chad in Goungour, Chad. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“A series of attacks by Sudanese paramilitary forces in the western region of Darfur raise the possibility of “genocide” against non-Arab ethnic communities,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on May 9.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with allied militias, have been widely accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in their war with the regular Army, which began in April 2023.

“The war has killed tens of thousands, including up to 15,000 in the West Darfur town of El-Geneina,” according to UN experts.

The area is the focus of the 186-page HRW report “‘The Massalit Will Not Come Home’: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El-Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan.” It describes “an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab populations”.

From late April until early November of last year, the RSF and allied militias “conducted a systematic campaign to remove, including by killing, ethnic Massalit residents”, according to HRW.

The violence, which included atrocities such as mass torture, rape and looting, peaked in mid-June — when thousands were killed within days — and surged again in November.

Local human rights lawyers said they had tracked a pattern where fighters targeted “prominent members of the Massalit community”, including doctors, human rights defenders, local leaders and government officials.

HRW added that the attackers “methodically destroyed critical civilian infrastructure”, primarily in communities consisting of displaced Massalit.

Satellite imagery showed that since June, predominantly Massalit neighbourhoods in El-Geneina have been “systematically dismantled, many with bulldozers, preventing civilians who fled from returning to their homes”, HRW reported.

HRW said the attacks constitute “ethnic cleansing” as they appeared to be aimed at “at least having them permanently leave the region”.

The context of the killings further “raises the possibility that the RSF and their allies have the intent to destroy in whole or in part the Massalit in at least West Darfur, which would indicate that genocide has been and/or is being committed there”, it added.

‘Large-scale atrocities’

HRW called for an investigation into genocidal intent, targeted sanctions on those responsible and urged the United Nations to “widen the existing arms embargo on Darfur to cover all of Sudan”.

The International Criminal Court, currently investigating ethnic-based killings in Darfur, says it has “grounds to believe” that both the Paramilitaries and the Army are committing “Rome Statute crimes”, which include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

And in December, the United States said that Sudan’s rival forces have both committed war crimes in their brutal conflict, accusing the RSF of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“More than half a million Sudanese have fled the violence from Darfur into Chad, according to the latest UN figures. By late October, 75% of those crossing the border were from El-Geneina,” HRW said.

Around 400 km (250 miles) east of El-Geneina, all eyes are currently on El-Fasher in North Darfur, the only state capital not under RSF control. The United States has warned of a disaster of “epic proportions” if the RSF proceeds with an expected attack, as residents fear the same fate of El-Geneina will befall them.

“As the UN Security Council and governments wake up to the looming disaster in El-Fasher, the large-scale atrocities committed in El-Geneina should be seen as a reminder of the atrocities that could come in the absence of concerted action,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan.