Darfur refugees report new spate of ethnically driven killings

People fleeing to Chad have reported a new surge in ethnically-driven killings in Sudan’s West Darfur as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over the main army base in the state capital, El Geneina.

People fleeing to Chad have reported a new surge in ethnically-driven killings in Sudan's West Darfur as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over the main army base in the state capital, El Geneina.

On Tuesday, a Reuters reporter saw a trail of men crossing from Darfur into Chad at Adre, about 27 km (17 miles) west of El Geneina. Three of those who fled said they had witnessed killings by Arab militias and RSF forces targeting the Masalit ethnic group in Ardamata, an outlying district in El Geneina that is home to the army base and to a camp for internally displaced people (IDP).

The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not able to independently verify the accounts of what took place.

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 ethnic African tribe, as war flared in the country between the RSF and Sudan's army.

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

At talks in Jeddah, the warring parties agreed to facilitating aid deliveries and confidence-building measures, mediators said on Tuesday, but efforts to secure a ceasefire have so far failed.

The attack on the army base in Ardamata started early last week, when militiamen also started shelling homes in the IDP camp, said Nabil Meccia, a nurse who said he had crossed into Chad after being detained by the RSF at the border and paying to secure his release.