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According to a Human Rights Watch report, new testimony has surfaced detailing one of the worst atrocities of Sudan’s year-long civil war. 

The report details that civilians were massacred as they attempted to flee ethnic violence in Darfur last summer. The report is based on 221 witness statements, which reveal that children and adults alike were brutally executed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their escape from the regional capital of El Geneina in June.

Witness accounts describe scenes where the RSF, an Arab-led paramilitary group, targeted Sudan’s non-Arab Masalit tribe. The violence resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, signaling a 12-month campaign of ethnic cleansing orchestrated by the RSF. The United Nations and the African Union have been urged to impose an arms embargo on Sudan and deploy a robust police force in Darfur to protect the remaining civilians.

Further revelations in the report call for sanctions against key RSF commanders responsible for war crimes, including the West Darfur RSF commander Abdel Rahman Joma’a Barakallah and RSF leader Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo. Since the conflict’s escalation in April 2023, over 8 million people have been displaced, creating one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent history.

The current situation remains dire, with El Fasher, the last city held by Sudan’s military in Darfur, under siege by the RSF. Human Rights Watch emphasizes that without immediate international action, the atrocities witnessed in El Geneina could foreshadow further massacres.