Sudan : Genocide unfolds and, once again, the world does little : Washington Post / Human Rights Watch
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| Three women and a teenaged girl from El Geneina, West Darfur, who survived rape committed between April and June 2023. © 2023 Belkis Wille/Human Rights Watch |
In Sudan, a genocide unfolds — again — and the world does littleBy the Editorial Board of the Washington Post
Populated villages razed. Satellite images of mass graves. Millions of innocent civilians displaced. People massacred while trying to flee for their lives. Women and girls subjected to horrific sexual violence, including rape.
This was Sudan’s Darfur region 20 years ago, when government-backed Arab “janjaweed” militiamen — “devils on horseback,” as some translate the name — embarked on a campaign of ethnic cleansing that killed 300,000 people and drove millions from their homes.
And this is Sudan today, where a new campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway. The devils are now riding in trucks instead of on horses. They now call themselves the Rapid Support Forces. But their atrocities are an ominous echo of the past. Their victims, too, are the same: members of the African Masalit tribe, mostly subsistence farmers who populate the Western Darfur region. In one atrocity, more than 1,000 people were reportedly massacred in June, simply for plotting to flee the besieged city of El Geneina.
Make no mistake: This is systemic ethnic cleansing of the Darfur region. The world is once again witnessing the beginnings of yet another genocide, unfolding in real time. Yet the international response has been muted.
But the existence of myriad crises and conflicts does not excuse failing to stem a new genocide.
At its convention in 1948, the United Nations called genocide “an odious scourge” to be eradicated, defining it as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The proscribed acts defining genocide include killing members of a targeted group, forcing the group’s displacement and trying to bring about its destruction. In other words, precisely what is happening in Sudan’s Darfur region right now.
After the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews in Europe in the middle of the 20th century, the world vowed to never again allow such a preventable tragedy to unfold when there was ample evidence and warning signs. But genocides and outrageous episodes of ethnic cleansing have continued to take place — in Cambodia in the 1970s, in Rwanda in the 1990s, with the Rohingya in Myanmar in the 2000s. The U.S. government and human rights groups and activists have accused China of carrying out a campaign of genocide through its widespread repression of ethnic Uyghurs in its western Xinjiang region, including using mass detention, forced labor, surveillance, and forced sterilization and birth control.
This was Sudan’s Darfur region 20 years ago, when government-backed Arab “janjaweed” militiamen — “devils on horseback,” as some translate the name — embarked on a campaign of ethnic cleansing that killed 300,000 people and drove millions from their homes.
And this is Sudan today, where a new campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway. The devils are now riding in trucks instead of on horses. They now call themselves the Rapid Support Forces. But their atrocities are an ominous echo of the past. Their victims, too, are the same: members of the African Masalit tribe, mostly subsistence farmers who populate the Western Darfur region. In one atrocity, more than 1,000 people were reportedly massacred in June, simply for plotting to flee the besieged city of El Geneina.
Make no mistake: This is systemic ethnic cleansing of the Darfur region. The world is once again witnessing the beginnings of yet another genocide, unfolding in real time. Yet the international response has been muted.
But the existence of myriad crises and conflicts does not excuse failing to stem a new genocide.
At its convention in 1948, the United Nations called genocide “an odious scourge” to be eradicated, defining it as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The proscribed acts defining genocide include killing members of a targeted group, forcing the group’s displacement and trying to bring about its destruction. In other words, precisely what is happening in Sudan’s Darfur region right now.
After the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews in Europe in the middle of the 20th century, the world vowed to never again allow such a preventable tragedy to unfold when there was ample evidence and warning signs. But genocides and outrageous episodes of ethnic cleansing have continued to take place — in Cambodia in the 1970s, in Rwanda in the 1990s, with the Rohingya in Myanmar in the 2000s. The U.S. government and human rights groups and activists have accused China of carrying out a campaign of genocide through its widespread repression of ethnic Uyghurs in its western Xinjiang region, including using mass detention, forced labor, surveillance, and forced sterilization and birth control.
Fighters Rape Dozens in Darfur as Sudan Conflict Rages - Human Rights Watch Daily Brief
Women and other civilians in West Darfur have been subject to a staggering number of rapes and other war crimes in recent months.
Between April and June, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital as well as those fleeing fighting. Many appear to have been targeted because of their ethnicity or because they were known activists.
Since the start of armed conflict in Sudan on April 15, the RSF and predominantly Arab allied militias have carried out repeated attacks on towns and villages in the West Darfur state. These attacks have mainly targeted areas inhabited by one of the main non-Arab communities, the Massalit.
Attacks in the city of El Geneina began on April 24 and continued through late June, causing numerous civilian deaths and injuries, and forcing over 366,000 people to flee to nearby Chad.
In late July, Human Rights Watch interviewed in Chad nine women and a 15-year-old girl from El Geneina who are survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
In almost all instances reported to HRW, those responsible for the rapes also committed other grave abuses including beatings, killings, looting, or burning homes, businesses, or government buildings.
One woman we spoke to remains haunted by the attack. “I cry often,” she said. “And when I cry, my throat hurts. I can’t sleep, I can’t feel normal. When I am walking outside, I keep getting lost. I can’t find my way when I try to go anywhere.”
Sexual violence committed in the context of an armed conflict is a war crime. Concerned governments should ensure support for rape survivors and investigations into violence, and perpetrators should be brought to justice.
People in Darfur should know they are not forgotten. And abusers should know the world is watching.
Between April and June, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital as well as those fleeing fighting. Many appear to have been targeted because of their ethnicity or because they were known activists.
Since the start of armed conflict in Sudan on April 15, the RSF and predominantly Arab allied militias have carried out repeated attacks on towns and villages in the West Darfur state. These attacks have mainly targeted areas inhabited by one of the main non-Arab communities, the Massalit.
Attacks in the city of El Geneina began on April 24 and continued through late June, causing numerous civilian deaths and injuries, and forcing over 366,000 people to flee to nearby Chad.
In late July, Human Rights Watch interviewed in Chad nine women and a 15-year-old girl from El Geneina who are survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
In almost all instances reported to HRW, those responsible for the rapes also committed other grave abuses including beatings, killings, looting, or burning homes, businesses, or government buildings.
One woman we spoke to remains haunted by the attack. “I cry often,” she said. “And when I cry, my throat hurts. I can’t sleep, I can’t feel normal. When I am walking outside, I keep getting lost. I can’t find my way when I try to go anywhere.”
Sexual violence committed in the context of an armed conflict is a war crime. Concerned governments should ensure support for rape survivors and investigations into violence, and perpetrators should be brought to justice.
People in Darfur should know they are not forgotten. And abusers should know the world is watching.
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