Sudan conflict puts Darfur’s history of ethnic bloodletting on rewind

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Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad, on August 4, 2023. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad, on August 4, 2023. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Updated 16 September 2023
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Sudan conflict puts Darfur’s history of ethnic bloodletting on rewind

  • The UN has received credible reports of at least 13 mass graves in El-Geneina and its surrounding areas
  • UN officials sound the alarm over“identity-based attacks,” with civilians “targeted on the basis of race”

NAIROBI, Kenya: Darfur, a part of Sudan that is no stranger to ethnic violence and genocide, is once again making similar headlines, following the discovery of mass graves amid a prolonged power struggle between two Sudanese generals that has reduced entire cities to rubble and triggered a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions.

The UN Joint Human Rights office said it has received credible reports of at least 13 mass graves in the city of El-Geneina and the surrounding areas, the head of the UN’s Sudan mission said on Wednesday.

The graves are believed to contain the bodies of victims of attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias on civilians, the majority of whom were from the Masalit community, Volker Perthes told the UN Security Council.




People place bodies into a mass grave in Nyala, Sudan, on August 23, 2023, in the aftermath of a strike near a bridge that killed dozens of people. (Handout via REUTERS)

This latest bout of bloodletting is partly the result of political rivalries compounded by simmering racial tensions. Darfur first gained international notoriety in the early 2000s when ethnic cleansing, economic disparities, and competition for resources sparked a conflict between the Arab-dominated government and non-Arab rebel groups.

Between 2003 and 2005, tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur were systematically killed, marking the first genocide of the 21st century. There are fears that the current conflict, between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces, which is entering its sixth month, could reach similar levels of brutality.




A man stands by as a fire rages in a livestock market area in al-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, on September 1, 2023, in the aftermath of bombardment by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AFP)

“These tensions have been exacerbated by factors such as desertification, political instability since Sudan’s independence, economic stagnation, the proliferation of arms from internal and external conflicts, proxy-led battles, and international polarization,” Ahmed Khair, a researcher at the Sudan Research and Consultancy Group, told Arab News.

While the root causes of conflict remain unchanged, the allegiances of the warring parties have steadily shifted.

“New political parties, actors, coalitions, and even a transformation of existing political entities, have emerged, adapting to the ever-shifting political dynamics,” said Khair.

Prominent examples of these groups are the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi, and the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel Wahid.




Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi ride in vehicles moving in a convoy accompanying the governor of Sudan's Darfur State during a stopover in the eastern city of Gedaref while on the way to Port Sudan on August 30, 2023. (AFP)

According to Khair, they are all motivated by the prospect of “empowering their regions and the citizens living there.”

The current crisis in Sudan began on April 15 when a long-running power struggle between the SAF and the RSF escalated into violence, much of which has been focused around Darfur and the capital, Khartoum. About 4 million people have been internally displaced by the conflict and a further 1.1 million have fled to neighboring countries, primarily Chad and Egypt.

In Darfur, the conflict has taken on an appearance that is both different from previous hostilities yet at the same time all-too familiar, with the RSF and allied militias targeting specific ethno-linguistic groups.

The western region of Darfur, an area about the size of France and home to a quarter of Sudan’s population, had already seen some of the worst unrest during the conflict before the violence further intensified last month. More than 50,000 people fled the city in the space of 10 days in August, according to the UN.




A picture taken on June 16, 2023, shows bodies strewn outdoors near houses in the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, prompting warnings that the conflict between two generals in war-torn Sudan had “taken on an ethnic dimension, resulting in targeted attacks based on people’s identities and subsequent displacement of communities”. (AFP)

Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, sounded the alarm over the increased incidence of “identity-based attacks,” warning that civilians “are being targeted on the basis of race” in Darfur.

Perthes, who this week announced he will step down from his role as head of the UN mission to Sudan, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, during his final briefing, that the conflict in the country is likely to escalate.

Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the SAF and Sudan’s de facto ruler, has repeatedly accused the UN envoy of bias toward the RSF, and Perthes has been persona non grata since he denounced possible “crimes against humanity” in Darfur.




Sudanese Armed Forces chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan greets supporters as tours a neighborhood in Port Sudan (Sudanese Army photo/AFP)

The Sudanese government repeatedly called for him to be dismissed from his role but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had reiterated his support for the envoy. On Wednesday, however, Guterres accepted the resignation of Perthes, saying that the envoy “has very strong reasons” for stepping down.

“I am grateful to the secretary-general for that opportunity and for his confidence in me but I have asked him to relieve me of this duty,” Perthes said, as he warned that the conflict “could be morphing into a full-scale civil war.”

He added that the warring sides “cannot operate with impunity and there will be accountability for the crimes committed.”

In early September, the US imposed sanctions on Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, the brother of RSF chief Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, over “the massacre of civilians, ethnic killings, and use of sexual violence.”




An image grab taken from a handout video posted on the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces page on Twitter, rebranded as X, on July 28, 2023 shows its commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo addressing RSF fighters at an undisclosed location. (Rapid Support Forces photo/AFP)

In South Darfur, a region historically associated with RSF influence, the feuding factions are locked in a fierce struggle for control of the country. While the RSF and its allied Arab militias hold sway over much of South Darfur’s capital, Nyala, the SAF is relying on its artillery and air force to assert its presence in an area that had long been neglected.

Civilians, and the aid workers trying to assist them, have found themselves caught in the crossfire. Sixty were killed and 285 wounded during 12 days of intense fighting in Nyala alone on August 22, according to a recent report by local monitoring group the Darfur Cinema Center. And an air raid on Wednesday killed at least 40 civilians, a medical source told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

On Aug. 21, the SAF reportedly shelled a market in Nyala, killing 24 civilians. The SAF denies being responsible for that incident but residents said they suspect the presence of RSF fighters nearby was the reason for the fatal bombardment.

A similarly harrowing incident occurred two days later when about 30 civilians, most of them women and children, were caught in the crossfire between the RSF and SAF.




Bodies of civilians were buried in mass graves by local residents in Nyala, Darfur. (Supplied)

According to locals and observers who spoke to Arab News, the actual death tolls resulting from incidents such as these are likely much higher than the reported figures.

The conflict has disrupted communications infrastructure in the region, which is making it difficult for medics to accurately record deaths. In many cases, grieving families have no choice but to bury their dead without officially registering their deaths.

Services at hospitals and clinics in conflict zone have also been affected. Rescue operations have been hampered by the closure of medical facilities, and healthcare workers are at constant risk of being targeted by the warring factions, in breach of international humanitarian law.

The fighting has also disrupted food supplies and “food scarcity is a pressing concern across Darfur, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis,” William Carter, the country director for Sudan at the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Arab News.

“It’s all very difficult and complex; the safety situation but also logistics, getting across borders from eastern Chad, through the rainy season across huge distances,” he added. “This is one of the most critical areas of the country to make sure a response gets to.”

 

 

The scarcity of food and safe drinking water often forces civilians to take extreme risks, placing themselves in the line of fire as they search for supplies.

“The situation is urgent,” Mohammed Adam Hassan, executive director of the Darfur Network for Human Rights, told Arab News. “We, as human rights organizations, continue to document civilian casualties, property destruction and widespread suffering.”

He called on the international community to intervene in the conflict and speed up the humanitarian response.

“The sanctions are a step in the right direction but more must be done to address the complex crisis on the ground,” he added. “Such an intervention should prioritize the protection of civilians and the creation of safe zones and humanitarian corridors to facilitate aid delivery.”

 

 

Khair, the researcher with the Sudan Research and Consultancy Group, agreed about the urgent need for urgent external intervention, but added that efforts need to align with the political realities on the ground.

“While coordination in areas controlled by the Sudanese government continues through established mechanisms, challenges arise in areas controlled by armed movements like the RSF,” he said.

Khair identified Minni Arko Minnawi, Darfur’s governor, as a potentially pivotal figure in this process, in light of the fact he has tacit approval from key parties.

“To bridge this gap, initiating dialogue and creating emergency coordination structures must happen,” Khair added.




Minni Minnawi (C), governor of Sudan's Darfur State, is greeted by locals during a stopover in the eastern city of Gedaref while on his way to Port Sudan on August 30, 2023. (AFP)

Efforts to address the crisis through regional diplomatic channels, such as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, have faced serious obstacles. Al-Burhan has threatened to withdraw Sudan from organizations that continue to communicate with representatives of the RSF.

Washington’s recent announcement of sanctions on RSF leader Dagalo might suggest the US is taking a side in the conflict but it could simply be a move designed to coax the warring parties back to the negotiating table in Jeddah.

Regardless of the measures taken so far, Hassan said that “accountability and justice are of the highest importance,” and that thorough investigations by organizations such as the International Criminal Court will ultimately be required to ensure the perpetrators of abuses are held to account.

 


Syria’s ‘Caesar’ whistleblower unveils identity

Updated 4 sec ago
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Syria’s ‘Caesar’ whistleblower unveils identity

BEIRUT: A Syrian whistleblower, who smuggled tens of thousands of pictures depicting torture under Bashar Assad, on Thursday revealed his identity for the first time, two months after the longtime ruler was toppled.
“I am First Lt. Farid Al-Madhan, the (former) head of the forensic evidence department at the military police in Damascus, known as Caesar,” he said in a televised interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Identified at the time only as a Syrian military photographer under the pseudonym Caesar, he had fled the country in 2013, taking with him some 55,000 graphic images taken between 2011 and 2013.
Describing himself during the interview as a “son of a free Syria,” he said he was from the city of Daraa, “the cradle of the Syrian revolution.”
Following the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, he said he was tasked with “taking pictures of victims of detention.”
These included “old men, women and children, who were detained at security checkpoints in Damascus, and from protest squares that called for freedom and dignity,” said Madhan, who added that he currently resides in France.
“They were detained, tortured and killed in bloody, systematic ways and their bodies were transferred to military morgues to be photographed and taken to mass graves,” he continued.
He said he postponed his defection from the government forces and fleeing the country in order to be able to “collect the largest number of pictures documenting and incriminating the Syrian regime apparatuses of committing crimes against humanity.”
He said the pictures were smuggled in a flash drive that he sometimes hid in his socks or a bundle of bread to escape government security checkpoints or those of the opposition.
The photos, authenticated by experts, show corpses tortured and starved to death in Syrian prisons.
Some people had their eyes gouged out. The photos showed emaciated bodies, people with wounds on the back or stomach, and also a picture of hundreds of corpses in a shed surrounded by plastic bags used for burials.
Assad’s government said only that the pictures were “political.”
But Caesar testified to a US Congress committee and his photographs inspired a 2020 US law which imposed economic sanctions on Syria and judicial proceedings in Europe against Assad’s entourage.
Germany, the Netherlands and France have since 2022 convicted several top officials from the Syrian intelligence service and militias.


Doubling down on his proposal, Trump says Israel would hand over Gaza to the US after fighting is over

Updated 42 sec ago
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Doubling down on his proposal, Trump says Israel would hand over Gaza to the US after fighting is over

  • No American troops would be needed on the ground, the US president wrote his Truth Social web platform
  • Israel’s defense chief suggests Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others opposed to military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians
  • Trump’s top diplomat said that people would have to live elsewhere while Gaza was being rebuilt

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave’s population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.
A day after worldwide condemnation of Trump’s announcement that he aimed to take over and develop the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” Israel ordered its army to prepare to allow the “voluntary departure” of Gaza Palestinians.
Trump, who had previously declined to rule out deploying US troops to the small coastal territory, clarified his idea in comments on his Truth Social web platform.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he said. Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.” He added: “No soldiers by the US would be needed!“
Earlier, amid a tide of support in Israel for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s “remarkable” proposal, Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow Gaza residents who wished to leave to exit the enclave voluntarily.
“I welcome President Trump’s bold plan. Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is the norm around the world,” Katz said on X.
He said his plan would include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air.
Trump, a real-estate-developer-turned-politician, sparked anger around the Middle East with his unexpected announcement on Tuesday, just as Israel and Hamas were expected to begin talks in Doha on the second stage of a ceasefire deal for Gaza, intended to open the way for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, a further release of hostages and an end to a nearly 16-month-old war.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rebuffed the proposal outright and Jordan’s King Abdullah, who will meet Trump at the White House next week, said on Wednesday he rejected any attempts to annex land and displace Palestinians.
Egypt also weighed in, saying it would not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from neighboring Gaza, where residents reacted with fury to the suggestion.
“We will not sell our land for you, real estate developer. We are hungry, homeless, and desperate but we are not collaborators,” said Abdel Ghani, a father of four living with his family in the ruins of their Gaza City home. “If (Trump) wants to help, let him come and rebuild for us here.”
It was unclear whether Trump would go ahead with his proposal or, in keeping with his self-image as a shrewd dealmaker, has simply laid out an extreme position as a bargaining tactic. His first term in 2017-21 was replete with what critics said were over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements, many of which were never implemented.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that people would have to live elsewhere while Gaza was rebuilt. He did not say whether they would be able to return under Trump’s plan to develop the enclave, home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
Axios reported Rubio planned to visit the Middle East in mid-February with an itinerary that includes Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Displacement
What effect Trump’s shock proposal may have on the ceasefire talks remains unclear. Only 13 of a group of 33 Israeli hostages due for release in the first phase have so far been returned, with three more due to come out on Saturday. Five Thai hostages have also been released.
Hamas official Basem Naim accused Israel’s defense minister of trying to cover up “for a state that has failed to achieve any of its objectives in the war on Gaza,” and said Palestinians are too attached to their land to ever leave.
Displacement of Palestinians has been one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East for decades. Forced or coerced displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime, banned under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Details of how any such plan might work have been vague. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said different thinking was needed on Gaza’s future but that any departures would have to be voluntary and states would have to be willing to take them.
“We don’t have details yet, but we can talk about principles,” Saar told a press conference with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani. “Everything must be based on the free will of (the) individual and, on the other hand, of a will of a state that is ready to absorb,” he said.
A number of far-right Israeli politicians have openly called for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and there was strong support for Trump’s push among both security hawks and the Jewish settler movement, which wants to reclaim land in Gaza used for Jewish settlements until 2005.
Giora Eiland, an Israeli former general who attracted wide attention in an earlier stage of the war with his “Generals’ Plan” for a forced displacement of people from northern Gaza, said Trump’s plan was logical and aid should not be allowed to reach displaced people returning to northern Gaza.
Israel’s military campaign has killed tens of thousands of people since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel touched off the war, and has forced Palestinians to repeatedly move around within Gaza in search of safety.
But many say they will never leave the enclave because they fear permanent displacement, like the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed from homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.
Katz said countries that have opposed Israel’s military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.
“Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories,” he said.


Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024

Updated 06 February 2025
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Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024

RABAT: Morocco stopped 78,685 migrants from illegally crossing into EU territory in 2024, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The figures highlight “growing migratory pressure in an unstable regional environment,” the ministry said in response to questions.

Among the migrants, 58 percent were from West Africa, 12 percent from North Africa where Morocco is located, and 9 percent from East and Central Africa, it said.

Years of armed conflict across Africa’s Sahel region, unemployment, and the impact of climate change on farming communities are among the reasons driving migrants toward Europe.

Morocco and neighboring EU member Spain have strengthened cooperation against undocumented migration since they patched a separate diplomatic feud in 2022.

The North African country has for long been a major launch pad for African migrants aiming to reach Europe through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, or by jumping the fence surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.

Last year, there were 14 group attempts to cross into Ceuta and Melilla, compared with six in 2023, the ministry said.

Moroccan authorities rescued 18,645 would-be migrants from unseaworthy boats in 2024, up 10.8 percent from 2023, it said.

Last month as many as 50 migrants may have drowned in the latest deadly wreck involving people trying to make the Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, a migrant rights group said.


West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF

Updated 06 February 2025
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West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF

  • Most clinics and hospitals are running at significantly reduced levels, medical charity says

GENEVA: The healthcare system in the occupied West Bank has been in “a state of perpetual emergency” since October 2023, the Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, group said in a new report published on Thursday.

“A dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions ... have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly health care, exacerbating already dire living conditions for many Palestinians,” it said.

Violence in the region soared after the attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered a massive retaliation by Israel that has leveled much of Gaza.

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the West Bank has seen a dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions,” it said.

The report examined “the attacks and the obstructions of healthcare in a context of what has been described by the ICJ (International Criminal Court) as segregation and apartheid.”

It revealed “a pattern of systematic interference by Israeli forces and settlers in emergency health care delivery.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Over the same period, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory, official Israeli figures show.

Preventing Palestinians from accessing healtcare was “part of a wider system of collective punishment imposed by Israel, under the guise of its crackdown on armed Palestinian men,” MSF said.

“The already-strained Palestinian healthcare system in the West Bank has been further weakened since October 2023 and is facing significant budget constraints,” it said.

Nearly half the essential medications are out of stock, and health workers have not been paid in a year, the report said, adding that “most clinics and hospitals are running at significantly reduced levels.”

“Access to health care is severely impeded by a sprawling system of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct ambulance movements, compounded by the escalation of violent military raids involving the use of disproportionate tactics.”

This is compounded by “frequent attacks on medical personnel and facilities ... Hospitals and healthcare structures are often encircled by military forces, with troops sometimes occupying the buildings themselves, compounding the risks to both patients and staff.”

Violence from settlers often exacerbates these dire conditions, it said.

MSF called on Israel to stop its “disproportionate use of force” in the West Bank, including on medical facilities and against medical personnel.

It called for independent probes into past such attacks, for Israel to facilitate medical access to those in need, and to allow the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to be allowed to continue its work.

Israeli military offensives in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said this week, amid escalating violence in the occupied territory.

Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp.

Faisal Salama, head of the camp’s popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of its 15,000 residents had been displaced.

Both Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures was challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.

“The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,” Salama said.

He said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on Jan. 25.

“The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.”

Salama also reported that the violence has severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.


Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN

Updated 06 February 2025
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Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN

GENEVA: More than 10,000 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since a fragile ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19, the UN humanitarian chief said on Thursday.

“We’ve moved over 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, a massive surge,” Tom Fletcher said on X.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator added that he himself was “about to cross into northern Gaza with a convoy of aid.”

“Thank you to the many people making it possible to get these trucks of vital, lifesaving food, medicine, and tents through,” he said.

His comments come as Israel and Hamas prepare to negotiate the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which has paused 15 months of relentless fighting and bombing unleashed after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

With just a trickle of aid coming into the territory before the ceasefire deal, international aid organizations repeatedly reported crisis levels of hunger in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip and warned of looming famine.

The truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical, and other aid being allowed into Gaza and enabled people displaced by the war to return to the north of the Palestinian territory.

Under the Gaza truce’s ongoing 42-day first phase, 18 hostages have meanwhile been freed so far in exchange for some 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that the death toll from the war in the Palestinian territory had reached 47,583.

The number of dead, published by the ministry, continues to rise every day as bodies discovered under the rubble are identified or people die from earlier wounds.

During the past 24 hours, 31 further deaths were recorded by the ministry, which also registered 111,633 wounded from the war.