US researchers say paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are collecting bodies after a deadly takeover of North Darfur’s capital.
Researchers at Yale University in the United States say the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) is digging mass graves. In L-FasherA town in Sudan’s West Darfur region that has seen mass killings and displacement since the RSF took over last month.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that RSF had “started digging mass graves and collecting bodies all over the city”.
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“They’re cleaning up the carnage,” Raymond said.
On 26 October, the RSF took control of Al-Fashar, the capital of North Darfur state, following the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which had been fighting the paramilitary group for control of Sudan. From April 2023.
More than 70,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas since the RSF took over. United NationsWhile witnesses and human rights groups have reported cases of “summary executions”, sexual violence and massacres of civilians.
A report from Yale’s Humanities Research Laboratory was also found on October 28 Evidence of mass murder Since the RSF took control of El-Fashar, with pools of blood seen in satellite imagery.
Even UN officials warned Thousands of people are believed to be trapped in al-Fashar this week.
“The current insecurity continues to block access, preventing life-saving aid from being delivered to those trapped in the city without food, water and medical care,” said Jacqueline Wilma Parlevleet, senior official of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan.
Sudanese journalist Abdullah Hussain explained that before the RSF took full control, al-Fashar had already endured an 18-month siege imposed by the paramilitary group.
“No aid was allowed to enter the city and no health services were (operating),” Hussein told Al Jazeera from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday. “Now it’s getting worse for the citizens who are trapped.”
Amid global protests, the RSF and its supporters have allegedly attempted to downplay the atrocities in al-Fashar. Allied Armed Forces About being responsible.
The leader of the RSF, Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedati, has also promised an investigation.
But Raymond of the Humanitarian Research Laboratory said: “If they really want to investigate, they have to withdraw from the city (and) let in UN staff and Red Cross and humanitarians … and go door to door to see who is alive”.
“At this stage, we cannot allow the RSF to investigate itself,” he said.
Raymond added that, based on UN figures and what could be seen on the ground in El-Fasher, “more people would have died (in 10 days)… Last two years War in Gaza”.
“We are talking about it. It is not hyperbole,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that thousands of people need emergency aid.
More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.