Children piled up and shot in Darfur

Human Rights Watch has urgently called for international intervention to halt the atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur state.

Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch, stressed the gravity of the situation  in a report on Thursday.

Ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity have been committed in El Geneina, West Darfur, against ethnic Massalit and non-Arab communities, according to the  report.

The Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, paramilitary group and allied militias have committed ‘numerous serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law’ as part of their campaign against the Massalit people of El Geneina, the report said.

Between April and November 2023 ‘at least thousands of people’ were killed, ‘hundreds of thousands’ left as refugees and civilian infrastructure methodologically destroyed, the report said. It said Entire neighborhoods housing primarily Massalit-displaced communities were looted, burned, shelled and razed to the ground.

"The events are among the worst atrocities against civilians so far in the current conflict in Sudan," HRW said. "Sudanese Red Crescent staff said that on June 13, they counted 2,000 bodies on the streets of El Geneina and then, overwhelmed by the numbers, stopped counting."

"Adolescent boys and men were especially singled out for killings, but among those unlawfully killed were also many children and women," the report said, adding RSF fighters and allied militias were using "derogatory racial slurs" during their weeks long campaign.

A U.N. panel of experts on Sudan estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in El Geneina in 2023.