Children ‘piled up and shot’ in Sudan as UN envoy says world cannot ignore this ‘silent war and famine’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that genocide is likely to have been committed in Sudan, as the UN’s special envoy to the country has said that global indifference to the civil war has led to a “silent” conflict and famine.
Tom Perriello told The Independent that the world “simply will not engage” with Sudan despite the fact that it has been in the grip of a year-long, vicious civil war. Last April, simmering tensions between its military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.
Ferocious fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region. There the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that people are living off grass and peanut shells and that at least 1.7 million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger. HRW has called for sanctions over the situation in West Darfur in a new report released on Thursday that alleged that RSF and its allied militias are committing crimes against humanity and widespread war crimes “in the context of an ethnic cleansing campaign”.
Mr Perriolo said that, despite the massive humanitarian crisis, soaring death toll and horrific violence, there had only been a “brief blip” in global attention around the anniversary of the conflict last month. Otherwise, interest had died down, with devastating effect.
“Please bring more attention to Sudan so that we do not lose the momentum of the last few weeks, which is the first we’ve had in a long time,” he said.
“A lot of people right now are facing acute famine and other horrific conditions.
“We need you to be the people that … start bringing attention to this silent war and silent famine.”
The warnings come as HRW called for the United Nations and the African Union to impose sanctions on those held responsible for serious crimes in West Darfur, as it released a damning 218-page report documenting ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in El Geneina, the state capital.
In one particularly gruesome incident, a 17-year-old witness described watching RSF forces murder children after killing their parents in front of them.
“Two RSF forces … grab[bed] the children from their parents and, as the parents started screaming, two other RSF forces shot the parents, killing them. Then they piled up the children and shot them. They threw their bodies into the river and their belongings in after them,” he said.
HRW alleged that the RSF, along with their allied mainly Arab militias, were targeting the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities in a wave of attacks, which could indicate that genocide is being committed.
Tirana Hassan HRW’s executive director said that governments, the African Union, and the United Nations “need to act now to protect civilians”.
“The global inaction in the face of atrocities of this magnitude is inexcusable,” She said. “Governments should ensure those responsible are held to account, including through targeted sanctions and by stepping up cooperation with the ICC [International Criminal Court].”
Sudan was plunged into a devastating conflict last April, when soaring tensions between its military and the RSF erupted into ferocious street battles in the capital, Khartoum, later engulfing other parts of the country, including Darfur.
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