Sudan: New Mass Ethnic Killings, Pillage in Darfur

(Nairobi) – The Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias killed hundreds of civilians in West Darfur in early November 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The forces also looted, assaulted, and unlawfully detained scores of members of the predominantly Massalit community in Ardamata, a suburb of West Darfur’s El Geneina.Given the pending closure of the UN mission in Sudan, and replacement by a special envoy, the United Nations Security Council should urgently consider ways to strengthen the UN’s presence in Sudan that could deter further atrocities and better protect civilians in Darfur. It should support monitoring of human rights abuses there and expand the existing arms embargo to cover the entire country and all parties to the ongoing armed conflict. African members of the Security Council, the United Arab Emirates, and other governments on the council should support these and other measures to ensure the UN’s most powerful body is able to fulfill its responsibility to protect civilians in West Darfur and the rest of Sudan.