The atrocities in Sudan They could take a break. After more than two years of a bloodless civil warthe paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF, for its acronym in English) have stated this Thursday that they have accepted a humanitarian truce proposed by the group of mediators that leads USA. The announcement comes 12 days after his forces, which are fighting against Sudanese army for control of the country, they will conquer The Fasherthe last city remaining in government hands in the southwestern region of Darfur. The fall of El Fasher has been accompanied by the massacre of thousands of civilians, often documented by the paramilitaries themselves and described by some human rights organizations as a ethnic cleansing campaign.
It is not the first time that a similar truce has been announced in the more than two years of conflict, in which both sides have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. With hardly any media attention, the hostilities have generated worst humanitarian crisis of the many that the world is currently experiencing, according to the United Nations, with more than 10 million displaced and 21 million people subjected to high levels of food insecurity. None of these truces, however, have come to fruition to date.
The Sudanese Army, commanded by General Abdel Fatah Burhanhas not yet given a definitive response to the mediators’ offer. One of their commanders, however, has told the Associated Press that they will not accept the truce unless it includes the withdrawal from civilian areas taken by the paramilitaries and their surrender of weapons.
International mediation
In recent days, the efforts of the group of international mediators, known as the Quad, of which the US is a part, had intensified. Saudi Arabia, Egypt y United Arab Emirates. “The atrocities we have seen are totally unacceptable,” the American mediator said earlier this week, Massad Boulos. He was referring to the videos that have emerged from El Fasher, where RSF paramilitaries are seen carrying out summary executions, lynchings, acts of sexual violence and torture. The mediators’ plan contemplates a three-month humanitarian truce, which would be followed by another nine months of political negotiations to try to resolve the conflict.
The taking of El Fasher came after 18 months of uninterrupted siege about the capital of North Darfurmarked by indiscriminate bombings, the blackout of basic services and the blockade of humanitarian aidwhich left the city on the brink of famine. Since then, both the paramilitary forces of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagaloknown as Hamedtias their allied Arab militias would have surrendered to a orgy of violence against the local population. Particularly against African tribes —not Arabs— like the Masalit. The RSF are considered the successors of the milicias Janjaweedaccused at the beginning of this century of committing a genocide in Darfurat that time with the support of the Sudanese regime, then led by Omar Al Bashir.
Massacres in El Fasher
On October 28, the World Health Organization accused Hamedti’s forces of committing a massacre at the Saudi Al Fasher hospital, the only one remaining operational in the region. According to the UN agency, 450 personasboth patients and family members were killed during the operation. Several doctors and health personnel were kidnapped. At the same time, the Yale University Humanitarian Research Laboratorywho investigated what happened using satellite images and testimonies from survivors, assured that there are “multiple credible reports of “mass murders” in El Fasher.
Everything indicates that the Rapid Support Forces are being armed and financed by the United Arab Emiratesalthough Abu Dhabi insists on denying it. Last May, the International Criminal Court dismissed a complaint filed by the Sudanese Government against the Emirates for complicity in the “genocide” of Darfur, as the US defined at the beginning of the year the atrocities committed there since the start of the war by Hamedti’s forces. The court dismissed the case citing lack of jurisdiction.
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