NEW YORK CITY: When the UN-backed fact-finding mission on Sudan concluded that atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces in and around Al-Fasher last October bore the “hallmarks of genocide,” it marked one of the most damning international assessments of the conflict to date.
The investigative report, issued on Thursday, detailed mass killings, sexual violence, rape, torture, abductions and the deliberate targeting of non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur, during the RSF assault on the Darfuri city in October.
More than 6,000 civilians are known to have been killed in just three days of carnage, while some 40 percent of Al-Fasher’s estimated 260,000 prewar population managed to escape. The fate of the rest remains unknown.
For Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, Sudan’s permanent representative to the UN, the findings confirm what Khartoum has been saying for months.
An aerial view of the black smoke and flames at a market in Omdurman. (Reuters/File)
