The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned, in the strongest terms, the killing of civilians and combat individuals in Sudan’s Western Darfur region.
This comes after his office pointed to credible information that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were responsible for a mass grave discovered in the country’s Southwestern Darfur region.
The UN says the bodies of at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others was discovered near the region’s capital on the orders of the rebel military faction that has been engaged in a conflict with Sudan’s Armed Forces since April.
The UN Human Rights Office says at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others were allegedly killed last month by the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militia while local people were forced to dispose of the bodies in a mass grave outside West Darfur’s capital of El Geneina.
The UN says those buried in the mass grave were killed around the 13 to the 21st of June and included many victims of the violence that ensued following the killing of the Governor of West, Darfur Khamis Abbaker on June 14th after he was taken into custody by the Rapid Support Forces.
News of this massacre emerging as the leaders from Sudan’s six neighbouring countries convened in Cairo, Egypt to discuss peace initiatives as the conflict now nears the three-month mark; and as the humanitarian situation in the country continues to deteriorate, as Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General explained.
Last week, the UN’s Humanitarian Chief, Martin Griffiths, described Sudan as a place of no hope at the moment.
VIDEO | 87 buried in mass grave in Sudan’s west Darfur:
