Darfur’s Massalit tribal people fear new genocide amid rising violence by paramilitaries

Darfur’s Massalit tribal people fear new genocide amid rising violence by paramilitaries
Sudanese refugees gather as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams assist the war wounded from West Darfur, Sudan, in Adre hospital, Chad, on June 16, 2023. (Mohammad Ghannam/MSF photo via REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 28 June 2023
Follow

Darfur’s Massalit tribal people fear new genocide amid rising violence by paramilitaries

Darfur’s Massalit tribal people fear new genocide amid rising violence by paramilitaries
  • Sudan’s war has killed nearly 2,800 people nationwide and uprooted roughly 2.8 million as battles rage
  • Dagalo's RSF accused of targeting the non-Arab ethnic minority Massalit, whom the army has supported in the current round of fighting

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s war has brought painful memories back to the troubled Darfur region where armed groups are accused of ethnically targeting civilians, sparking fears of a new “genocide.”

“They burned every house in the neighborhood and killed my brother in front of me,” recounted one survivor, Inaam, who fled the western region for neighboring Chad.
Her harrowing escape took her through streets “littered with bodies,” said the human rights defender who, like others interviewed by AFP, used a pseudonym for fear of retaliation against relatives.
Such testimonies have sparked alarm about a repeat of the bloody history of Darfur, where former strongman Omar Al-Bashir in 2003 unleashed Arab tribal militia in a scorched-earth campaign to quash a non-Arab rebellion against perceived inequalities.
The unrest killed at least 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, according to the UN, and sparked international charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Bashir and others.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) later emerged from the notorious Janjaweed militia which spearheaded Bashir’s deadly onslaught.
Against that background, Darfuris watched with terror when the RSF went to war in mid-April with the Sudanese army and fighting quickly spread from the capital Khartoum back to their home region.
Inaam said that, nine days after hostilities erupted, the RSF and allied Arab militias descended on her hometown of El Geneina, capital of West Darfur state.
After they torched her neighborhood, she fled on “detours to avoid RSF and Arab tribal fighters” and managed to cross the border to Chad about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away.
Another refugee, who asked to be identified only as Mohammed, also recounted passing through terrifying checkpoints.
At every stop, “Arab militia fighters asked us our names and our tribe,” he told AFP. Depending on the answers, he said, some “were executed.”
The RSF and their allies, Mohammed charged, “are specifically targeting Massalit,” a non-Arab ethnic minority whom he said “the army has supported” in the current round of fighting.
“An old conflict is re-awakening in El Geneina.”

Sudan’s war has killed nearly 2,800 people nationwide and uprooted roughly 2.8 million as battles rage between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Much of the worst fighting has hit Darfur in unrest that Washington has labelled an “ominous reminder” of the past “genocide.”
The Massalit are one of the major non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, which is also home to Arab tribes such as the Rizeigat, the pastoralist camel-herding people from which Daglo hails.
Volker Perthes, head of the United Nations mission to Sudan, warned in mid-June that “there is an emerging pattern of large-scale targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities, allegedly committed by Arab militias and some armed men” in RSF uniform.
“These reports are deeply worrying and, if verified, could amount to crimes against humanity.”
On Tuesday, the United States, Norway and Britain said targeted ethnic violence and other abuses in Darfur are “mostly attributed” to RSF and allied militias.
Power blackouts and severed phone and Internet access have severely hampered reporting from the region the size of France that is home to about a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people.
The UN has also said that “RSF and allied militias are reportedly surrounding the cities” of El Fasher in North Darfur and Nyala in South Darfur.
Amnesty International warned of “terrifying similarity with the war crimes and crimes against humanity” perpetrated in Darfur since 2003.

According to the US State Department, up to 1,100 people have been killed in El Geneina alone, but the Massalit tribal leadership says the real toll is even higher.
They charged in a statement that more than 5,000 people were killed, 8,000 injured and hundreds of thousands displaced by June 12.
People have suffered “the worst crimes against humanity, murder, ethnic cleansing and looting,” they said, reporting that “snipers have spread out on rooftops” and police “have joined RSF ranks.”
Mohammed said families quickly learnt that “only the women could go out to fetch water, because the snipers would target every man.”
Army soldiers meanwhile “have not left their bases since the war began,” he said, echoing the situation in much of Khartoum.
A tribal leader told AFP that “the RSF and the Arabs have killed, looted and burned” everything in their path.
In El Geneina, “the house of the Massalit sultan” has been under “constant attack,” he said.
Tribal leaders and activists have been killed in their homes, according to the West Darfur lawyers’ union.
In mid-June, the sultan’s brother Tarek Bahr El-Din was killed, as was West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, who had hours earlier accused the RSF of “genocide” on Saudi television.
The RSF denied killing Abakar and blamed forces it said were acting “against the background of an old tribal conflict.”
RSF general Abdel Rahman Gumma Barak Allah accused the army of having armed minority groups, including “1,000 Aringa men and 1,500 Massalit” and charged they had attacked police in El Geneina.


The fighting has deepened a long-running humanitarian crisis, say aid groups, after clinics were raided and food warehouses ransacked in Darfur.
“The conflict has not only endangered lives through direct violence but has also severely hindered access to health care,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told AFP.
Another refugee, teacher Ibrahim Issa, told AFP he had made it “out of the hell” of El Geneina, where the fighting had brought back dark memories “of 2003 and 2004, when you were killed for your ethnicity.”
Mohammed said the conflict between the army and RSF “has turned into a civil war and a genocide.”
MSF medics in Chad reported treating refugees with bullet wounds who were targeted “as they tried to leave the city.”
The group also reported sexual violence including the rape of a 15-year-old girl by “six armed men in a bus” while she was fleeing to Chad with her 18-year-old sister.
Alice Nderitu, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, also warned of the threat of “renewed campaigns of rape, murder and ethnic cleansing.”


The latest Darfur violence has again raised the question of whether those responsible will one day face justice.
“In principle, many of the crimes documented to date in Darfur likely constitute at least crimes against humanity, if not war crimes,” human rights lawyer Emma DiNapoli told AFP.
But proving them will depend on what evidence activists can gather while dodging bullets and arson attacks.
“Activists on the ground should be documenting evidence to the highest standard possible, particularly taking the details of eyewitnesses to violations and documenting evidence of command and control or perpetrator information,” DiNapoli said.
Since the UN Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court with no end date, the court “in theory” has “jurisdiction over crimes committed in the present day,” she added.
But Sudan’s past does not offer much hope. Khartoum never handed over any suspects wanted by the ICC, and some have escaped prison since the new war broke out.
Four suspects including Bashir remain at large. One, who voluntarily surrendered elsewhere in Africa, is on trial in The Hague.
bur/fz/it/mca


Lebanon risks being ‘ostracized’ if presidential vacuum lingers -French envoy

Lebanon risks being ‘ostracized’ if presidential vacuum lingers -French envoy
Updated 44 min 12 sec ago
Follow

Lebanon risks being ‘ostracized’ if presidential vacuum lingers -French envoy

Lebanon risks being ‘ostracized’ if presidential vacuum lingers -French envoy
  • Le Drian told Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour that he was planning to host a series of “consultations” among political actors
  • “I hope that the actors are aware that a way out must be found; otherwise, they will be ostracized by the international community,” Le Drian said

BEIRUT: Lebanon risks being “ostracized” by the international community if its nearly year-long presidential vacuum drags on further, France’s special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian told a local Lebanese newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of former head of state Michel Aoun ended last October. The current parliament, one of the country’s most deeply divided, has failed 12 times to elect a successor, with the last session in June.
Le Drian told Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour that he was planning to host a series of “consultations” among political actors and that he hoped Speaker of Parliament Nabih would then begin convening parliament “for consecutive and open sessions.”
“I hope that the actors are aware that a way out must be found; otherwise, they will be ostracized by the international community. No one will want to see them anymore, and it will be unnecessary to seek support here or there,” Le Drian said.
The failure to elect a president has deepened sectarian tensions in Lebanon, already mired in one of the world’s worst economic crises and facing unprecedented political paralysis, with its cabinet only partially empowered.
Lebanon has failed to enact reforms required to gain access to $3 billion in funding from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has blamed “vested interests” for the lack of progress.
Donor countries have stepped in to help fund various public services but have grown increasingly frustrated with Lebanon’s requests for more funding.
Le Drian on Tuesday said five key countries — the United States, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — who had been coordinating on policies to help Lebanon out of its political impasse were beginning to reconsider assistance.
“The five are wondering how long they will continue to help Lebanon,” he said.
The five had already discussed possible measures against politicians and groups who were obstructing the election of a president.


Saudi delegation visits Israel-occupied West Bank

Saudi delegation visits Israel-occupied West Bank
Updated 26 September 2023
Follow

Saudi delegation visits Israel-occupied West Bank

Saudi delegation visits Israel-occupied West Bank
  • The delegation led by the kingdom’s non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Nayef Al-Sudairi, arrived overland from Jordan
  • Sudairi is then due to meet Palestinian present Mahmud Abbas

Jericho: Saudi Arabia, which is in US-brokered talks with Israel to normalize relations, on Tuesday sent a delegation to the occupied West Bank for the first time in three decades.
The delegation led by the kingdom’s non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Nayef Al-Sudairi, arrived overland from Jordan, acting Jericho governor Yusra Sweiti said.
It is the first such Saudi delegation to travel to the West Bank since the landmark Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
Sudairi, the Saudi envoy to Jordan, was last month appointed non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories and consul general for Jerusalem.
He will be received by the top Palestinian diplomat, Riyad Al-Maliki, the foreign ministry in Ramallah said.
Sudairi is then due to meet Palestinian present Mahmud Abbas.
Sudairi’s visit to Ramallah comes as Washington has been leading talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia on a potential normalization of relations between the two countries, a move seen as a game-changer for the region.


Japan proposes initiative to resume nuclear talks: Iran FM

Japan proposes initiative to resume nuclear talks: Iran FM
Updated 26 September 2023
Follow

Japan proposes initiative to resume nuclear talks: Iran FM

Japan proposes initiative to resume nuclear talks: Iran FM
  • Under US President Joe Biden’s administration, negotiations resumed with the objective of re-entering the agreement

DUBAI: Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Japan has proposed an initiative to resume negotiations to revive the nuclear deal that was signed in 2015 by Tehran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US.

According to Kyodo News, Abdollahian said any initiative from Japan that aligns with “Iran’s interests” would be viewed positively, adding: “We support the constructive role of Japan in reviving the nuclear deal.”

He told the Japanese news agency that he received a proposal from the Japanese government when he visited Tokyo last month and met with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and former Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.

Abdollahian said delays in the negotiations’ progress were caused by “excessive demands” by the US, Britain, France and Germany, as well as “interference” by other countries in Iran’s domestic issues, specifically with regard to protests over the death last year of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 percent, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. It also agreed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67 percent for the next 15 years.

But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal, saying it did not address “Iran’s ballistic missile program and its proxy warfare in the region.”

Under US President Joe Biden’s administration, negotiations resumed with the objective of re-entering the agreement.

Most recently, on Sept. 20 Kishida and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met in New York to discuss security issues, bilateral relations and the nuclear deal.

Kishida said Japan has been consistent in its support of the deal and urged Iran to take constructive measures.


Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria
Updated 26 September 2023
Follow

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria
  • Save the Children is asking the court to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia

Sydney: More than 30 Australian women and children living in “appalling conditions” in a Syrian detention camp launched court action Tuesday to compel Canberra to bring them home.
Their case opened at the High Court in Melbourne, nearly a year after Australia repatriated the last group of four women and 13 children — the wives, sons and daughters of vanquished Daesh group fighters — from Syria.
“The situation of the remaining persons detained is stark and dire,” said Peter Morrissey, counsel for the charity Save the Children, which is acting on their behalf.
“Save the Children Australia represents women and children charged with no crime, detained in piteous and appalling conditions,” he told the court.
“Their health, safety, and dignity are seriously compromised by any standard. Their detention in the camps has endured for several years.”
Save the Children is asking the court for a writ of habeas corpus (or unlawful detention) requiring the government to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia.
“Despite countless opportunities to repatriate these families, the Australian government has ultimately failed in its duty to bring all of its citizens home to safety,” said Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler.
“We desperately hope these children and their mothers will be imminently repatriated home to safety. It is unfathomable that the Australian government has abandoned its citizens,” he said in a statement.
Repatriations of Australian women and children from Syrian camps are a politically contentious issue in a country long known for its hard-line approach to immigration.
The Australian women and children have lived in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj detention camps in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria since the 2019 collapse of Daesh.


Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy
Updated 26 September 2023
Follow

Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

Lebanon forces arrest suspect over shooting at US embassy

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s security forces on Monday said they had arrested a man suspected of firing 15 bullets at the American embassy building in Beirut last week.

A source named the suspect as 26-year-old Lebanon national Muhammad Mahdi Hussein Khalil, who works for a delivery company. The source added that Khalil had previously been convicted of opening fire on a Lebanese public security center.

According to the source, Khalil confessed to shooting at the embassy compound in the Aukar suburb of Beirut, and that the weapon used in the attack had been seized.

Surveillance cameras showed a lone man dressed in black firing a Kalashnikov rifle before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle.

“The shooter carried out his act after previous disputes between him and embassy security over food deliveries,” the source told Arab News.

There were no injuries caused by the shooting late on Wednesday.