UN: Mass grave found in Sudan’s West Darfur

A mass grave of at least 87 people, including women and children, has been discovered in Sudan’s West Darfur, according to the UN human rights office.

The victims include ethnic Masalits, the UN’s human rights office on Thursday, according to Reuters.

– Key details to note

The UN said it had credible information that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group allied to the Sudanese government, were responsible for the killings.

The RSF has denied any involvement, but witnesses and rights groups have reported waves of attacks by the RSF and Arab militias against the non-Arab Masalit people in West Darfur in recent weeks.

The UN said the bodies of the victims were found in a shallow grave in an open area near the city of El Geneina between June 20-21. Some of the people had died from untreated injuries, the UN said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for a prompt and thorough investigation into the killings.

“I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and hors de combat individuals,” Turk said. “I am further appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated.”

– Why this matters

The ethnic killings have raised fears of a repeat of the atrocities perpetuated in Darfur after 2003, when “Janjaweed” militias, from which the RSF was formed, helped the government crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur, killing some 300,000 people.

Sudanese civilians have fled the area on foot, some having been killed or shot as they escaped, according to Reuters.

“This report is a good first step, but more efforts are needed to uncover more violations,” Ibrahim, a refugee in neighboring Chad who asked to withhold his last name for fear of retribution, was quoted as saying.

Army spokesperson Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah told Reuters the incident “rises to the level of war crimes and these kinds of crimes should not pass without accountability.”

“This rebel militia is not against the army but against the Sudanese citizen, and its project is a racist project and a project of ethnic cleansing.”