Sudanese official urges investigation into violence in Darfur, saying it’s a return to past genocide

CAIRO (AP) — The governor of Darfur on Tuesday called for an international investigation into violence against residents of the region, which has experienced some of the worst fighting in Sudan’s ongoing conflict, saying it’s a return to past genocide.

Mini Arko Minawi urged the U.N. Security Council to allow the International Criminal Court to probe “crimes and assassinations” that took place in the western region over the past two months.

Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict, which capped months of tensions between rival generals, has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded over 6,000 others, according to Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim. It has forced more than 2.2 million people to flee their homes to safer areas inside Sudan and to neighboring nations.

The fighting has centered on the capital, Khartoum, but spread elsewhere in the African country, including Darfur. The violence in Darfur, a sprawling region consisting of five provinces, has recently taken an ethnic dimension, with the RSF and Arab militias reportedly targeting non-Arab tribes in the region, according to U.N. officials.

The U.N. envoy in Sudan, Volker Perthes, said earlier this month that such attacks, which include targeted killings, rapes and other atrocities, could amount to crimes against humanity.

Minawi said “excessive force” has been used against residents in many areas in the region, including Genena, the capital of West Darfur province, and the town of Kutum in North Darfur province.

“What is happening in Darfur now is no less than what had happened in 2003,” he said in a video posted Monday on his social media accounts, referring to the region’s genocidal war in the early 2000s.

He spoke of residents killed, women raped and the looting and burning of properties, and assassinations of the region’s political and community leaders, including the governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abdalla Abkar.

Akbar, a member of the Masalit ethnic group, was abducted and killed Wednesday hours after he accused the RSF and allied Arab militias in a televised interview of attacking Genena. Activists and rights defenders have blamed his slaying on the RSF, a charge the paramilitary force denied.

Dar Masalit sultanate, which represents the Masalit ethnic community in Darfur, also called for an “immediate international intervention” to protect civilians in Darfur.

In a detailed report issued Monday on the violence in Genena, the sultanate accused the RSF and Arab militias of launching a “series of systematic and bloody attacks” aimed at “ethnically cleansing, and of committing genocide against African civilians.”

It said more than 5,000 people were killed and at least 8,000 others wounded in two months in the city.

Darfur suffered the genocidal war when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of discrimination.

Former dictator Omar al-Bashir’s government was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes, known as Janjaweed, who targeted civilians. The Janjaweed, who later evolved into the RSF, were accused of widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities in Darfur over the past two decades.

In the current conflict, the RSF and allied Arab militias have repeatedly attacked the city, especially areas inhabited by the Masalit community, according to residents and activists. Many towns, villages and displacement camps were looted and burned down.

Activists also reported that dozens of women were raped inside their homes and while trying to flee the fighting in Darfur. Almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF, which didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

“This spiraling violence bears terrifying similarity with the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Darfur since 2003. Even those seeking safety are not being spared,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.