Ethnic killings in one city in Sudan, where victims numbered between roughly 10,000 and 15,000, have prompted calls for action by the United Nations against the country's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Independent UN sanctions monitors attributed the toll in El Geneina to intelligence sources and contrasted it with the UN estimate that roughly 12,000 people have been killed across Sudan since Apr. 15, 2023. It was when the war between the Sudanese army and the RSF erupted.
In their report, the monitors also described the "credible" accusations that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had provided military support to the RSF "several times per week." This was made via Amdjarass in northern Chad. A top Sudanese general also accused the UAE in November of backing the RSF war effort.
The UAE sent a letter to the monitors, saying that 122 flights had delivered humanitarian aid to Amdjarass to help Sudanese people who were fleeing the conflict. One UAE official on Saturday said that they extended an invitation to the UN monitors to visit a field hospital in Amdjarass to "learn firsthand about the humanitarian efforts undertaken by the UAE to help alleviate the suffering caused by the current conflict," as per Reuters.
The UN said that roughly 500,000 people have already fled Sudan and traveled into eastern Chad, which is several hundred kilometers south of Amdjarass. The monitors wrote that from April to June last year, El Geneina allegedly experienced "intense violence."
They also accused the RSF and its allies of targeting the ethnic African Masalit tribe in attacks that may "amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity." Previously, the paramilitary denied the accusations and said that any of its soldiers who were found to be involved would face justice.
In their annual report to the 15-member Security Council, the sanctions monitors said that the ethnic attacks were planned, coordinated, and executed by RSF and their allied Arab militias.
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UN Action Against Paramilitary Group
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry also condemned on Saturday the continued supply of advanced weapons to the RSF by the UAE and other unnamed countries. The ministry said that this particular support enables the paramilitary to expand its military operations, commit atrocities against civilians, and prolong the Sudanese war, according to the Sudan Tribune.
Furthermore, officials also criticized the international community's slow response to the situation in the embattled region. They argued that the reluctance to take decisive action against the RSF contributed to the continuation of the war and the suffering of millions of Sudanese people.
In December last year, the ethnic killings affected 24-year-old Osman Arbab and his younger brother as they were on a bus outside Atbara, Sudan. Then, military intelligence suddenly stopped the vehicle and asked which of the passengers were from Darfur or Kordofan.
The two individuals were then told by the military intelligence officers that they were accused of spying for the RSF. Arbab and his brother were then taken to a facility in Atbara in northeastern Sudan. They were subjected to beating for six days during interrogation in an attempt to force confessions out of them, said Aljazeera.
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