A governor from Sudan’s Darfur region has been killed hours after accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing genocide.
In a TV interview, Khamis Abakar had asked for international intervention to stop violence in West Darfur he blamed on the RSF and its Arab militia allies.
The conflict that erupted two months ago between the RSF and army has inflamed ethnic tensions in Darfur.
The army said the RSF abducted Abakar and executed him, which it denies.
He is the most senior official known to have been killed since the conflict began in April.
Video footage circulating on social media appears to show a group of armed men, some wearing RSF uniforms, detaining the governor of West Darfur state on Wednesday.
But the RSF blamed “outlaws” for his death, saying its fighters had tried to protect Abakar by taking him to their headquarters in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur.
It was then overrun and the governor kidnapped and “assassinated in cold blood”, the RSF said.
Black African and Arab communities in Darfur have long been at loggerheads – with the worst violence erupting two decades ago when non-Arabs took up arms accusing the government of discrimination.
In response the government armed Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed. They were accused of widespread atrocities and ethnic killings, described as the first genocide of the 21st Century.
Source: bbc.com
