Sudan medics accuse RSF of burning, burying bodies to conceal ‘genocide’

People fleeing el-Fasher for Al Dabbah archer Al Jazeera galore died connected the mode from wounds oregon deficiency of food.

A Sudanese aesculapian organisation has accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of engaging successful a “desperate attempt” to conceal grounds of wide killings successful Darfur by burning bodies oregon burying them successful wide graves.

The Sudan Doctors Network said connected Sunday that paramilitaries are collecting “hundreds of bodies” from the streets of el-Fasher, successful Sudan’s occidental Darfur region, aft their bloody takeover of the metropolis connected October 26, saying the group’s crimes could not beryllium “erased done concealment oregon burning”.

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“What happened successful el-Fasher is not an isolated incidental but alternatively different section successful a full-fledged genocide carried retired by the RSF, blatantly violating each planetary and spiritual norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and warrant the dormant the close to a dignified burial,” it said successful a statement.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 82,000 of el-Fasher’s full colonisation of 260,000 fled aft the RSF seized the past Sudanese subject stronghold successful the region, amid reports of wide killings, rape, and torture. Many residents are believed to inactive beryllium trapped.

Reporting from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said galore radical fleeing el-Fasher for Al Dabbah successful the northbound died connected the road, “because they had nary nutrient oregon water, oregon due to the fact that they sustained injuries arsenic a effect of gunfire”.

Morgan said that escapees told Al Jazeera they learned of the deaths of relatives from societal media videos of their killings posted by RSF fighters. Several videos depicting utmost acts of unit person emerged successful the nationalist domain since the radical overran the city.

Targeted taste killings

With the “communications blackout” successful the city, galore did not cognize what happened to their household members.

“They judge if their relatives are inactive live wrong el-Fasher, past they whitethorn not beryllium truthful for agelong due to the fact that of a deficiency of nutrient and water… oregon due to the fact that the RSF has been targeting radical based connected their ethnicities,” Morgan reported.

The RSF, which has been warring the Sudanese service for power of Sudan since April 2023, traces its origins to the predominantly Arab, government-backed militia known arsenic the “Janjaweed”, which has been accused of genocide successful Darfur 2 decades ago.

Between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 300,000 radical were killed, and astir 2.7 cardinal were displaced successful campaigns of taste violence.

Sylvain Penicaud of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, who spoke to civilians who fled el-Fasher for the municipality of Tawila, said galore of those fleeing said they were “targeted due to the fact that of the colour of their skin”.

“For me, the astir terrifying portion was [civilians] being hunted down portion they were moving for their lives; being attacked simply for being Black,” Penicaud said.

The Zaghawa, the ascendant taste radical successful el-Fasher, has been warring alongside the service since precocious 2023.

The group, which initially remained neutral erstwhile the warfare began, aligned with the subject aft the RSF carried retired massacres against the Masalit people successful West Darfur’s capital, el-Geneina, sidesplitting up to 15,000 people.

Hassan Osman, a assemblage pupil from el-Fasher, said residents with darker skin, particularly Zaghawa civilians, were subjected to “racial insults, humiliation, degradation and carnal and intelligence violence” arsenic they fled.

“If your tegument is light, they mightiness fto you go,” helium said. “It’s purely ethnic.”