Sudan’s Darfur region is facing an increasing risk of genocide as the world focuses on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, a United Nations expert has warned.
The UN Secretary-General’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, told the BBC’s Newsday programme: “We do have cases where a genocide may be occurring or has occurred.”
She said many civilians have been targeted because of their ethnicity in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher, where fierce fighting has increased in recent days.
More than 700 deaths were reported by a medical charity in the city in 10 days.
El Fryer is the last major urban center in the Darfur region still in the hands of the Sudanese army.
The army has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in a civil war that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee their homes.
Local resident Ibrahim al-Tayeb al-Faki told the BBC that his sister was killed in an army airstrike that also destroyed his home.
The 47-year-old man told the BBC that he sent his three children to live with their grandfather but his house was also hit by bullets. The family is currently taking refuge in its ruins.
“There is currently no safe place in El Fryer,” he said.
The situation is evolving into a genocide “like Rwanda” in 1994, Ms. Nderitu said, citing a United Nations analysis of increasing risk factors.
“The increased hostility in El Fryer has now opened a truly alarming chapter in this conflict,” she added.
“I call everyone’s attention to this particular conflict. I have tried to speak out but my voice has been drowned out by other wars – in Ukraine and Gaza.”
Similar concerns arise about possible genocide in Darfur recently expressed by Human Rights Watch (HRW)..
A report from the campaign group said paramilitaries and their Arab allies carried out ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against ethnic Massalit and non-Russian communities. Arabs in the region.
It called for sanctions against those responsible for the atrocities, including RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
The current violence was sparked by long-standing tensions over resources between non-Arab farming communities, including Massalit communities and Arab herders.
The internet has been cut, making access to the city difficult as RSF soldiers continue to surround the city.
About 15,000 people are believed to have died in the West Darfur city of El Geneina last year, the United Nations said.
Last June, West Darfur Governor Khamis Abakar was killed hours after accusing the RSF of committing genocide. He is the highest-ranking official known to have been killed since the conflict began in April.
RSF said it was not involved in what it described as “tribal conflict” in Darfur.
The paramilitary group emerged from the Janjaweed militia accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing of non-Arab communities in Darfur in 2003, after rebels took up arms, accusing the government of ignoring ignore the area.
