Muslim Paramilitary Group Burns A Whole Village To The Ground, Ambushes Twenty-Eight People And Murders Them All Because They Are “Non-Arab”

An Islamic paramilitary group in Sudan, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is reported to have murdered twenty-eight people who are non-Arab, as we read in VOA:

Darfur, home to around a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people, has seen entire towns razed to the ground, with reports of mass civilian deaths and ethnically charged assassinations blamed on the RSF and allied Arab militias.

On Saturday, the RSF said it “categorically refutes” a recent report by Human Rights Watch that detailed the summary execution of “at least 28 ethnic Massalit” — a non-Arab minority group — and the “total destruction of the town of Misterei” in West Darfur state.

The RSF blamed the violence on “longstanding tribal conflict” and said it “strictly adheres” to “international humanitarian law.”

The paramilitary force stemmed from the Janjaweed militia, which was armed and unleashed against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in the early 2000s.

That conflict killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, the U.N. estimates.

NPR reported:

A new report by Human Rights Watch reveals the extent of killings and other abuses against largely non-Arab ethnic groups in Sudan’s Darfur region since fighting between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group erupted in April. Many of the abuses amount the war crimes, the rights group says, and is calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate them.

…

In one case in May, Human Rights Watch says the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias “summarily executed” at least 28 ethnic Massalit people in the town of Misterei. RSF and allied fighters who are at war with Sudan’s army attacked the town and the armed self-defense groups surrounding it. Then they pursued civilians who had fled and hid from the conflict, and gunned them down in the streets, going door-to-door, and targeting them as they hid in mosques and schools, the report says.

In a school, gunmen entered classrooms and executed the men they found there, witnesses said. They also shot at children and women. The men shot dead 26 people, while 11 people survived and spoke to Human Rights Watch. The survivors said there was no fighting in the school when the gunmen searched it and began killing.

Men and boys in the town were especially targeted by the RSF and allied militia, who burnt Misterei to the ground, according to refugees. Satellite imagery investigated by HRW confirmed the accounts, showing how the town had been razed.

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