BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) has expressed serious concern over the reports of more than 1,000 people killed in Sudan’s West Darfur region this month by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), western media reported on Sunday.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a statement said that the act of RSF seems to be the ethnic cleansing campaign.
He added that the latest brutalities are aimed to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur.
Forces of the Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the ruler of Sudan, have been fighting with the RSF commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo since April.
The EU in a statement said there are credible reports that more than a thousand members of the Masalit community have been killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, in two days, during major attacks by the RSF and its affiliated militias.
The death toll is higher than a previous one of 800 released by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which said 100 shelters in a displaced persons’ camp were also destroyed in Ardamta.
Earlier the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, had strongly condemned raping of young girls in front of their mothers. She expressed fears of a genocide campaign that started Darfur in the early 2000s.
EU urged Sudanese forces to protect citizens
The EU stressed that Sudanese forces involved in fighting have a duty to protect citizens.
It added that it was working with the International Criminal Court to record violations to ensure accountability.
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The EU said the international community cannot become a silent spectator on what is happening in Darfur and allow another genocide to happen in this region.
According to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project more than 10,000 people have been killed in the Sudan conflict so far.
According to UN figures the conflict has displaced more than 4.8 million people inside Sudan and has compelled a further 1.2m to flee into neighbouring countries.
