A mass grave has been discovered in Sudan’s West Darfur state with at least 87 bodies, as a regional summit hosted by Egypt to help solve the crisis in Sudan gets under way.
The United Nations human rights office said Thursday that it had credible information that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were responsible, the same day the summit kicked off in Cairo.
The UN said the mass grave includes the bodies of Masalit people, an indication of the ethnically-motivated fighting taking place in the state, as Sudan continues to be embroiled in a conflict that began on April 15 between the country’s army and the RSF.
People were forced to bury the bodies near the city of el-Geneina between June 20 and June 21, a UN statement said. Rights groups have reported attacks by the RSF and Arab militias against the non-Arab Masalit people in the region.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and hors de combat individuals, and I am further appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, calling for an investigation.
The RSF has denied being responsible for the graves, a senior official telling the Reuters news agency that he “completely denies any connection to the events in West Darfur as we are not party to it, and we did not get involved in a conflict as the conflict is a tribal one”.
Source: Aljazeera.com
