RSF digging mass graves in Sudan’s el-Fasher to ‘clean up massacre’: Expert

The Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are collecting bodies aft the deadly takeover of North Darfur capital, US researcher says.

A researcher astatine Yale University successful the United States says the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are digging wide graves in el-Fasher, the metropolis successful Sudan’s occidental Darfur portion that has seen wide killings and displacement since the RSF took implicit past month.

Nathaniel Raymond, enforcement manager of the Humanitarian Research Lab astatine Yale’s School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera connected Tuesday that the RSF “have begun to excavation wide graves and to cod bodies passim the city”.

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“They are cleaning up the massacre,” Raymond said.

The RSF seized power of el-Fasher, the superior of North Darfur state, connected October 26, aft the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been warring the paramilitary radical for power of Sudan since April 2023.

More than 70,000 radical person fled the metropolis and surrounding areas since the RSF’s takeover, according to the United Nations, portion witnesses and quality rights groups person reported cases of “summary executions”, intersexual unit and massacres of civilians.

A study from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab connected October 28 besides recovered evidence of “mass killings” since the RSF took power of el-Fasher, including evident pools of humor that were disposable successful outer imagery.

UN officials besides warned this week that thousands of radical are believed to beryllium trapped successful el-Fasher.

“The existent insecurity continues to artifact access, preventing the transportation of life-saving assistance to those trapped successful the metropolis without food, h2o and aesculapian care,” Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, a elder UN exile bureau (UNHCR) authoritative successful Sudan, said.

Sudanese writer Abdallah Hussain explained that, earlier the RSF’s afloat takeover, el-Fasher was already reeling from an 18-month siege imposed by the paramilitary group.

“No assistance was allowed to entree the city, and nary healthcare facilities [were] operating,” Hussain told Al Jazeera from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, connected Tuesday. “Now it’s getting adjacent worse for the citizens who stay trapped.”

Amid planetary condemnation, the RSF and its supporters person tried to downplay the atrocities committed successful el-Fasher, accusing allied equipped groups of being responsible.

The RSF’s leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, besides known arsenic Hemedti, has besides promised an investigation.

But Raymond astatine the Humanitarian Research Lab said: “if they privation to really person an investigation, past they request to retreat from the metropolis [and] fto UN unit and the Red Cross and humanitarians participate … and spell house-to-house looking to spot who’s inactive alive”.

“At this point, we can’t fto the RSF analyse themselves,” helium said.

Raymond added that, based connected UN figures and what tin beryllium seen connected the crushed successful el-Fasher, “more radical could person died [in 10 days]… than person died successful the past 2 years of the warfare successful Gaza”.

“That’s what we’re talking about. That’s not hyperbole,” helium told Al Jazeera, stressing that thousands of radical request exigency assistance.

More than 68,000 Palestinians person been killed successful Israel’s warfare connected Gaza since October 7, 2023.