UN reports that an attack on a Darfur town claimed the lives of over 800 Sudanese

Doctors and the U.N. stated that fighters from a paramilitary force and their linked Arab militias stormed into a community in the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan, allegedly killing over 800 people in a multiday raid.

The latest in a string of crimes in Darfur that signaled the start of the months-long conflict between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, was the attack on Ardamata in the province of West Darfur earlier this month. Since simmering tensions between military head Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into open combat in mid-April, Sudan has been enveloped in chaos.

Eighteen months had passed since the military coup led by both generals had overthrown a provisional administration. With the overthrow of longstanding strongman Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 due to a public revolt, Sudan’s brief and precarious transition to democracy came to an end with the military takeover.

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Despite the warring sides’ return to the bargaining table in Saudi Arabia late last month, the RSF made significant advances in Darfur in recent weeks, seizing control of entire cities and villages throughout the vast area. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia-brokered first round of negotiations failed to establish a cease-fire.

According to Salah Tour, the leader of the Sudanese Doctor’s Union in West Darfur, the RSF took control of a military base in Ardamata following a brief skirmish with forces there on November 4. This led to the days-long offensive. He added that about twenty wounded soldiers fled to Chad when the military left the base.

When contacted for comment, military and RSF spokespeople did not pick up. According to Tour, the RSF and its linked Arab militias stormed through the town after taking control of the military post, slaughtering non-Arabs inside their homes and setting refugee shelters on fire.

He said that the African Masalit tribe was the focus of the RSF and allied militias’ “violent attack on the town.” “They killed and detained people as they went from house to house.”

An advocacy group called the Darfur Bar Association charged that RSF fighters in Ardamata were engaging in “all types of serious violations against defenseless civilians.” It mentioned an attack on Nov. 6 in which more than fifty persons, including a tribe leader and his family, were slaughtered by the RSF.

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More than 800 people are alleged to have died, according to the UNHCR, and 8,000 more are said to have fled to neighboring Chad. On the other hand, the organization stated that the number of individuals who left was probably underestimated because of difficulties in registering newcomers to Chad.

The organization claimed that over 100 shelters in the town were completely demolished and that a great deal of looting had occurred there, including the theft of the organization’s humanitarian supplies. “Human rights violations and horrific atrocities in Darfur shocked the world twenty years ago. We worry that a similar situation could be emerging,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated.

Eyewitness accounts of major human rights abuses by the RSF and allied militias, including killings in Ardamata and ethnic targeting of Masalit community leaders and members, gravely concerned the U.S. State Department. It released a statement saying, “These horrific acts once again highlight the RSF’s pattern of abuses in connection with their military offensives.”

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A few kilometers (miles) to the north of Geneina, the West Darfur province capital, lies Ardamata. Attacks on Geneina were carried out by the RSF and Arab militias, including a significant attack in June that forced more of the region’s non-Arab inhabitants into Chad and other parts of Sudan.

The U.N. and international rights organizations have also accused the paramilitary group and its affiliated Arab militias of atrocities in Darfur, the site of a genocide campaign in the early 2000s. These horrors included rape and gang rape in Khartoum, the capital, as well as Darfur. Nearly every occurrence that was reported had the RSF to blame.

Citing reliable sources, the U.N. Human Rights Office said in July that a mass grave containing at least 87 victims had been discovered outside of Geneina. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announced that he was looking into claims of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the recent conflict in Darfur as a result of these atrocities.

UN Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths said that the fighting had resulted in “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history” and that nearly 9,000 people had died. According to U.N. data, over 6 million people were also forcibly removed from their homes, with 1.2 million of them seeking asylum in neighboring countries.

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The battle began in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and soon expanded to Darfur and other parts of the east African country.

The majority of civilian infrastructure was destroyed, and most recently, a bridge over the Nile River that connected Khartoum’s northern region with Omdurman, the capital’s sister city, collapsed, turning the capital into a battlefield. Allegations of having detonated the Shambat bridge were exchanged by both parties.