UN says at the least 6,000 killed over 3 days throughout RSF assault on Sudan’s el-Fasher : NPR

CAIRO — Greater than 6,000 individuals have been killed in over three days when a Sudanese paramilitary group unleashed “a wave of intense violence … stunning in its scale and brutality” in Sudan’s Darfur area in late October, in response to the United Nations.

The Fast Help Forces’ offensive to seize town of el-Fasher included widespread atrocities that quantity to conflict crimes and potential crimes in opposition to humanity, the U.N. Human Rights Workplace mentioned in a report launched on Friday.

“The wanton violations that have been perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia within the remaining offensive on el-Fasher underscore that persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence,” mentioned U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

The RSF and their allied Arab militias, often called Janjaweed, overran el-Fasher, the Sudanese military’s solely remaining stronghold in Darfur, on Oct. 26 and rampaged by way of town and its environment after greater than 18 months of siege.

The 29-page U.N. report detailed a set of atrocities that ranged from mass killings and abstract executions, sexual violence, abductions for ransom, torture and ill-treatment to detention and disappearances. In lots of instances, the assaults have been ethnicity-motivated, it mentioned.

The RSF didn’t reply to an e-mailed request for remark.

The paramilitaries’ Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo has beforehand acknowledged abuses by his fighters, however disputed the size of atrocities.

‘Like a scene out of a horror film’

The alleged atrocities in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, mirror a sample of RSF conduct in its conflict in opposition to the Sudanese miliary. The conflict started in April 2023 when an influence battle between the 2 sides exploded into open preventing within the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere throughout the nation.

The battle created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster with elements of the nation pushed into famine. It has additionally been marked by heinous atrocities which the Worldwide Felony Court docket mentioned it was investigating as conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity. The RSF was additionally accused by the Biden administration of finishing up genocide within the ongoing conflict.

The U.N. Human Rights Workplace mentioned it documented the killing of at the least 4,400 individuals inside el-Fasher between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27, whereas greater than 1,600 others have been killed as they have been attempting to flee the RSF rampage. The report mentioned it drew its toll from interviews with 140 victims and witnesses which have been “are per unbiased evaluation of contemporaneous satellite tv for pc imagery and video footage.”

In a single case, RSF fighters opened hearth from heavy weapons on a crowd of 1,000 individuals sheltering within the Rashid dormitory in el-Fasher college on Oct. 26, killing round 500 individuals, the report mentioned. One witness was quoted as saying that he noticed our bodies thrown into the air, “like a scene out of a horror film,” in response to the report.

In one other case, round 600 individuals, together with 50 youngsters, have been executed on Oct. 26 whereas taking shelter within the college services, the report mentioned.

The report, nevertheless, warned that the precise scale of the loss of life toll of the week-long offensive in el-Fasher was “undoubtedly considerably increased.”

The toll doesn’t embrace at the least 460 individuals who have been killed by the RSF on Oct. 28 after they stormed the Saudi Maternity hospital, in response to the World Well being Group.

Round 300 individuals have been additionally killed in RSF shelling and drone assaults between Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 within the Abu Shouk camp for displaced individuals, 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) northwest of el-Fasher, the U.N. Human Rights Workplace’ report mentioned.

Girl and women sexually assaulted

Sexual violence, together with rape and gang rape, was apparently widespread throughout el-Fasher offensive, with RSF fighters and their allied militias concentrating on girls and women from the African Zaghawa non-Arab tribes over allegations of getting hyperlinks or supporting the miliary, the report mentioned.

Türk, who visited Sudan final month, mentioned survivors of sexual violence recounted testimonies that confirmed how the apply “was systematically used as a weapon of conflict.”

The paramilitaries additionally kidnapped many individuals whereas trying to flee town, earlier than releasing them after paying ramson. 1000’s have been held in at the least 10 detention facilities — together with town’s Kids Hospital which was become a detention facility — run by the RSF in el-Fasher, the report mentioned.

The U.N. Human Rights Workplace additionally mentioned it documented 10 detention services utilized by the paramilitaries in el-Fasher, together with the Kids’s Hospital which was become a detention heart. A number of 1000’s of individuals stay lacking and unaccounted for, the report mentioned.

The sample of the RSF offensive on el-Fasher was a mirror of different assaults by the paramilitaries and their allies on the Zamzam camp for displaced individuals, 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of town, and on West Darfur’s metropolis of Geneina and the close by city of Ardamata in 2023, the U.N. Human Rights Workplace mentioned.

Türk mentioned there have been “cheap grounds” that RSF and their allied Arab militias dedicated conflict crimes, and that their acts additionally quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity.

He referred to as for holding these accountable — together with commanders — accountable, warning that “persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence.”