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El-Fasher, Sudan. Photo: AFP
GENEVA:
The United Nations’ independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said on Thursday the siege and capture of El-Fasher by a paramilitary group bore “the hallmarks of genocide”.
Its investigation concluded that the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) seizure of the city in Darfur state in October had inflicted “three days of absolute horror” and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.
The mission warned that “urgent protection of civilians is needed, now more than ever” in neighbouring Kordofan state, the flashpoint of fighting since the RSF’s capture of El-Fasher, which was marked by ethnic massacres, sexual violence and detention.
“The scale, coordination and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El-Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said mission chairman Mohamad Chande Othman.
“They formed part of a planned and organised operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.”
Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary RSF has killed tens of thousands and forced 11 million people to flee their homes.
It has triggered what the UN says is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
