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EU Condemns Escalating Violence in Darfur, Warns of 'Another Genocide'


FILE - Women from the city of Al-Junina (West Darfur) cry after receiving the news about the death of their relatives as they waited for them in Chad, November 7, 2023.
FILE - Women from the city of Al-Junina (West Darfur) cry after receiving the news about the death of their relatives as they waited for them in Chad, November 7, 2023.

The European Union, EU, condemned on Sunday an escalation of violence in Sudan's Darfur region, warning of the danger of "another genocide" after conflict there between 2003-2008 killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.

The conflict since April between Sudan's regular army and Rapid Support Forces, RSF, paramilitary has destabilized the western region and reignited long-simmering feuds there.

The EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell cited in a statement witness reports that more than 1,000 members of the Masalit community were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in just over two days during attacks by the RSF and affiliated militias.

"These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur, and comes on top of the first wave of large violence in June," Borrell said.

FILE - Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023.
FILE - Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023.

"The international community cannot turn a blind eye on what is happening in Darfur and allow another genocide to happen in this region."

On Thursday, the International Organization for Migration, IOM, said approximately 700 people were reportedly killed in West Darfur after clashes between the Sudanese army and RSF in El Geneina on Nov. 4 and 5.

The RSF said last week it had taken control of the army headquarters in West Darfur's capital of El Geneina.

Reuters has reported that between April and June this year, the RSF and allied Arab militias conducted weeks of systematic attacks targeting the Masalit, El Geneina's majority tribe, as war flared with Sudan's army.

In public comments, Arab tribal leaders have denied engaging in ethnic cleansing in El Geneina, and the RSF has previously said it was not involved in what it called tribal conflict.

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