Sudan War Spurs Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur, Rights Group Says
- Rapid Support Forces blamed for thousands of targeted killings
- Unarmed children among those massacred by soldiers, group says
People walk among scattered objects in the market of El Geneina, in April 29, 2023.
Source: AFP/Getty Images
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied militia groups in Sudan led a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region last year, according to Human Rights Watch.
Over the course of an eight-month period in 2023, soldiers from the Arab-led RSF targeted unarmed civilians, including young boys, women and children, as well as lawyers, doctors, human rights defenders, academics, community leaders and religious figures belonging to the non-Arab Masalit community, the New York-based advocacy group said in a report said published on Thursday. The RSF has origins in the government-backed janjaweed militias that perpetrated the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s.