“Rampage of Killings, Looting, Torture, Rape”: Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur Region

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org Kei we want to turn now uh to a conflict that is very rarely uh covered and certainly not covered to the extent that it should be uh which is in uh Sudan where a humanitarian catastrophe in North darur is escalating as Human Rights Watch has documented on Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan said people are quote trapped in an inferno of brutal violence between the Army and paramilitary forces which has made it hard to deliver Aid and now quote famine is closing in for more than 4 million people also on Wednesday the United States imposed sanctions against two commanders of Sudan's paramilitary rapid support forces this is human rights lawyer Jamal Abdul kamam describing how he nearly escaped a massacre orchestrated by the rapid security forces or r SF he spoke in a video for a new Human Rights Watch report titled Sudan ethnic cleansing in West daro I was accompanying my injured friend YF Arun cabalo minutes later around eight militia men wearing rapid support forces uniforms [Music] appeared there were others with them from these well-known Arab militias they were arguing with people they stopped the cars they opened fire on us they shot at the chests of children women old and young men it was a harrowing scene we thought about how to escape but we needed a way to escape how are we going to escape they started chasing people down the valley and firing on people who were in the water it was terrifying so belis Villa that was an excerpt from the video that accompanied your report human rights watch's report on Sudan if you could talk about uh the key findings in the report uh and why Human Rights Watch has concluded that the r F may have committed genocide so this report is about a period last year between April and June and then subsequently in in November and and we've centered the report around events that occurred in the capital of West St for the city of eljan the reason we focus there is because though there has been fighting across Sudan since last April when there was a split between the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support Force verus the rsf the violence has been perhaps most acute there and the this is you know an area that since uh 2003 has faced waves of of of of violence and and and horrific killings last April uh with this this split and and fighting that developed in in kartum the capital we saw the rsf proceed to encircle uh the city of eljan um where there was a limited presence of the Sudanese Armed Forces they pulled out of the city at that point leaving uh civilians in the city to the hands of the rsf the rsf brought in Allied militia and these Allied militia and the rsf then from April until June conducted a rampage of killings of Looting of torture of rape targeting a specific ethnic group the masalit population and a few other specific ethnic groups and this was a campaign as as as you say of ethnic cleansing that we saw conduct did over about 6 weeks and and over that time these Armed Forces encircled this population pushing them into a smaller and smaller sector of the city and then ultimately push them out of the city in one Mass wave of killing where you had tens of thousands of people on the street mostly masalit walking trying to get to safety and and Rapid support forces uh along the sides of the road just opening fire and and shooting them people um started running they jumped into the river which was deep they were drowning as they were drowning they were being shot and killed some then turned around and ran in the direction of the border with Chad and and they along that road were also rounded up by forces and many were killed um at the end of last summer my colleague and I uh interviewed um dozens of of of survivors of this violence we ended up uh interviewing uh 200 or so and and they shared with us horrific details about about these killings and it's it's really important that states um focus on the the acuteness of this violence and focus on examining whether indeed there was intent to commit genocide by the rsf and whether um and whether there should be prosecutions for genocide and belus V if you can explain who is arming both sides I mean we've just passed the first anniversary of this conflict between the Sudanese military and the rsf who are together before this and explain who the leaders are and the countries on both sides unfortunately this is um an incredibly murky picture we have different governments providing arms uh to either side of these groups we ourselves have been trying to track some of these AR arms transfers because of course the more that weapons continue to get poured into this conflict um the more uh the fighting will continue and the more civilians will will pay the price I think what's perhaps the most notable though is is actually the lack of action to protect civilians whether that's by the UN Security Council or by the African Union you know there was a un mission of peacekeepers that was based in Sudan and their mission ended in 2020 a new mission was created by the UN that had no uh peacekeeping or protection of Civilian mandate it was only a you know a political negotiations Mission but that even that closed at the end of of last year last November so at the in Sudan there is absolutely no entity that is focused on the protection of civilians and so what we're calling for in this report is a new Mission um that uh needs to be created both by by the UN and the African Union sent into into Sudan with a mission to protect civilians and at the same time we need to see an effective arms embargo currently there's an AR arms embargo uh in place in in the context of darur it's not being uh complied with as you said there are different states pouring weapons into the country and that needs to be complied with in order to better protect uh civilians if I may just add one thing which is there is another city a city in Northern darur which you mentioned Al faser that City uh as of this morning is is is is in flames in the eastern part of the city we saw satellite imagery from two days ago showing that the rsf has encircled the city and that there are fires developing in civilian neighborhoods and this is a city that's been housing um tens of thousands of people who've been displaced from fighting in other parts of darur belis as you mentioned there is an existing arms embargo so if you could say I mean how is an arms embargo normally enforced and why hasn't it been enforced in this case and what are the countries that are violating the arms embargo consistently outside Powers who are involved in this conflict include the United Arab Emirates Iran Egypt and and no doubt others a absolutely so you know I mean the the effectiveness of arms embargos really comes also from political will to impose those arms embargos political will on the sides of States not to send weapons to uh specific uh conflict zones uh but but then also uh on the side of of the International Community the Watchdog Community the UN Security Council to hold States accountable when they are breaking that arms of Bargo and that's something that we're not seeing uh happening in the in the context of of of dar dar for specifically you mention the name of a few States like the United Arab Emirates and others um that that are shipping weapons into this conflict and context but as I said it's extremely murky um there is a limited tracking of what kind of weapons are being brought into the country and how they're being used by these these Waring parties exactly the reason that indeed there should be an arms embargo a complete arms embargo in place that is being effectively enforced by the UN and and the global community and belis if you could say you know just outline what the scale of the crisis is uh for refugees and internally displaced people in Sudan a new report from the International Organization for migration has found 20,000 people are forced to flee their homes in Sudan every day 20,000 people every day half of them children what do you think needs to be done to help these people get to a place that's safe as you say I mean the scale of the conflict really can't be understated we have areas in the country that are that are approaching famine um we we have we have areas of the country like Dar for where the violence and the conditions have been so bad and the violence so acute that over half a million people have had to flee across the border into Chad we've seen many people have to flee to other neighboring countries including South Sudan um and elsewhere so so it really speaks to to the horrifying um situation that civilians are are facing unfortunately as long as the fighting continues and as long as that there is no entity to to to put in place um you know a civilian protection um uh strategy we're going to continue to see the the conditions that you're describing there are so many areas that are completely outside of the access of Aid groups and Aid organ and Aid workers so those are areas where there's no way to bring food or medicine or water in and that's uh because of the Waring parties the rsf and the Sudanese armed forces are blocking access for Aid workers into these areas they're blocking civilians from fleeing from certain areas a and that's really the context of of the conditions you described milis Villa we want to thank you so much for being with us associate director with the crisis conflict and arms division at Human Rights Watch speaking to us from the capital of Ukraine from keev and speaking of international human rights um the international court of justice today uh is hearing from South Africa their request over the Israeli assault on gaza's southern city of Rafa we'll have more on that tomorrow I'm Amy Goodman with nine she for another edition of democracy Now democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please 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Channel: Democracy Now!

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Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: Nrrj5DKwdSU

Length: 11min 31sec (691 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024