Name: Sudan atrocities 'hallmarks of genocide', UN says | BBC News
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A UN fact finding mission in Sudan has determined that atrocities carried out against non Arab civilians by the Rapid Support forces point to genocide.

The paramilitary group captured the city of El Fha in Darfur in late October after an 18 month blockade.

The UN mission said the RSF's targeting of members of non Arab African tribes was brutal and included deliberate efforts to destroy them through mass killings, sexual violence and starvation.

Speak to Africa correspondent Barbara Plett Usher.

And Barbara, some stark findings in the report.

Tell us more about the details that are in there.

Yes, well, the report found that the atrocities committed in Al Fasher were not random excesses of war, but

they were carried out with a widespread and systematic pattern that was committed according to a plan or policy with knowledge and intent.

The evidence pointed to several hallmarks of genocide which effectively amounted to deliberate efforts to destroy a targeted population, an ethnic group by these methods of sexual violence, mass killing, starvation and so on.

And it said that intent is a very important part of the definition of the crime of genocide and that they had inferred from the actions and how systematic they were and from the evidence they were able to put together that that was the intent.

They mentioned that the targeted ethnic groups in particular were the Zarawa and the Fur tribes.

Now these are indigenous African tribes in Darfur, especially in the Al Fashr area.

And the armed groups that were resisting the RSF attack on Al Fashr were largely from the Zagawa tribe.

And so it seems the evidence is pretty clear actually that the RSF did not distinguish between the, the civilians and the armed members of that tribe that they had been fighting.

And the conflict is actually the ethnic part of it is rooted in previous conflicts that have taken place in Darfur between the largely Arab militias that form the backbone of the RSF and the non Arab constituencies.

And Barbara, is there any prospect as a result of this report of any further action from the international community or further help?

Yeah, it's a good question because we've had all these atrocities reported for some time and there hasn't been any action on, on the ground really that we have seen.

This is going to be presented to the UN in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council up for debate.

Also, the British Foreign Secretary is addressing the UN Security Council today.

She will mention this and really push for accountability.

That was part of the mandate of this UN investigative mission.

Name the perpetrators as much as you can so they can be held accountable.

There are a few names in the report, not many it has to be said, including the name of the RSF leader, saying that he and others celebrated the fall of Al Fasher as an achievement and called the fighters heroic, that he had actually admitted that some violations took place, that there were investigations undergoing, but

had not responded to any questions from the group, from the investigators as to where things were at with that.

The RSF has always denied any allegations of genocide, although it hasn't responded specifically to this one.

So some of the things that the investigators propose are sanctions.

Now, both sides have been sanctioned, individuals have been sanctioned already, so it's not clear how much difference that would make.

They mentioned the fact that there is a flow of weapons coming from outside supporters.

Don't go into a great deal of detail about that, but

that's a huge factor in the continuing war and one of the ways that mediators are trying to get to bring a stop to or at least a truce to it.

There hasn't been any, any progress so far.

And this is one way of trying to push those buttons and push people to make these decisions.

And, Barbara, in terms of the humanitarian situation, it has been pretty grim for a long time there.

So the humanitarian situation in Al Fasher is quite difficult to determine because there's not a lot of information coming from there.

From what we understand, there are not that many people there now.

The number is unclear, hundreds, I think, of people who are detained there by the rsf.

Again, information not entirely clear, but

there is some work underway to try to get humanitarian aid into the city and especially into the villages around it where many of the people fled.

In terms of the overall humanitarian picture in it really depends where you live as to whether you can eat.

That's a quote from the international food monitors, because the areas where there is active conflict, so that would be in the south central part of the country and also the areas where the RSF has taken control, which is mostly in the western part of the country.

The humanitarian situation is dire and famine is spreading in some parts.

In the areas where the army has expelled the RSF and is beginning to move back, things are improving somewhat and there are various reasons for them.

But for this, including humanitarian workers say bureaucratic obstacles from both sides in terms of getting the food into the conflict areas.

Also the economy has been decimated, the local economy, and

it hasn't, especially in the rsf Held controlled areas hasn't been built up again in any significant way.

So there are continued warnings that people are still dying from starvation.

Barbara Petasher, thank you very much indeed for bringing us the latest there.

Want to speak to Matilda Vu, who's an advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Sudan.

Thanks very much indeed for, for joining us.

I wonder if you can just give us a sense of your reaction to the report that we've had.

I mean, this report really confirms what this war has been, right?

A war of systematic attacks against civilians.

It is really new laws in history that we've reached with what happened in Al Fasher.

And I'm really afraid that, you know, these were mark on the walls like the humanitarian organization, the human rights organization, every single person in Darfur had warned the international community that such level of atrocity could be committed in 2025.

And sadly, you know, like it unfolded in front of everyone, on everyone's phone and without, you know, the, the action from the international community to, to stop it.

So what the report shows is level of atrocities that I've seen in North Darfur.

I was there right after the fall of Al Fasher and I.

It doesn't even begin to highlight what the suffering of the people and what they've been through for during the siege and during the fall.

Tell us what you saw and the help that you were trying to bring people.

I was in Tawila, which is 60 km away from Al Fashion was the safest place for people to reach to once they managed to flee.

Al Fasha and the stories that they were telling me was awful.

Towards the end of the siege there, there was nothing left to eat.

People could not even eat animal food, which is something that they had been relying on for months and months.

They had resorted to entering slaughterhouses and to collect skin from cows and eat it, boil it and eat it, removing the hair.

They could not go out during the day, they had to go out at night because they were being bombed, shelled all the time when they were trying to get food.

They had to also cross a burn that was all around the city and that was basically, basically like preventing traders from reaching.

And once they were fleeing, they were subjected to horrifying, horrifying violence, executions, rape, looting.

I've had a man who was telling me that his own brother was executed in front of him as they were trying to flee and he had to bury him and then, you know, try to flee and these are things that happen all the time throughout the months, as you know, the siege emphasized and then the city was attacked.

I mean, they must be caught up in this as others are.

What kind of trauma help is there for dealing with that kind of trauma?

I think this is what shocked me the most.

During the first two weeks after the fall of Al Fasher, we saw at least 400 children who arrived in Taula without their parents.

What that meant is that their parents had either been disappeared, detained, killed or separated along the way.

And they just arrived in this immense camps of Tawila without parents, not knowing what to do.

We have open schools there, you know, like basically tents that were their first safety net for months.

I've seen a 10 year old who was now the bigger person in the family because nobody else was there anymore and he was taking care of his five year old brother.

I've seen so many children drawing blood, bulldozers, guns on a piece of paper, because this is the only thing that they've seen for months and months.

So we're trying to help them with psychosocial support, with singing, with games, etc.

But like, the long term trauma is going to be immense.

Matilda Devou, thank you very much indeed for joining us there from the Norwegian Refugee Council.