Children are among those who were allegedly killed by the RSF paramilitary organization in West Darfur last month.
The UNHCR stated on Thursday that at least 87 dead had been found in a mass grave in Sudan. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan, according to the agency, are to blame.
The RSF and its affiliated militia, according to the UN, ordered the burial of corpses they are accused of killing in West Darfur last month, including ethnic Masalit, in a shallow grave outside the region’s capital, El-Geneina.
The agency stated in a statement that it had “credible information” to support the claim that locals were compelled to bury the bodies in a mass grave instead of giving the victims a respectable burial in one of the city’s cemeteries.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF have been engaged in fierce fighting that has continued throughout the Sahelian nation, with reports of an increase in racially motivated attacks.
According to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, the violence, which is currently in its thirteenth week, has resulted in more than 3,000 fatalities and 6,000 injuries. According to the UN, more than two million people have been ejected from their homes.
According to many media accounts, witnesses in El Geneina and rights organizations allege repeated attacks by the RSF and Arab militias on non-Arab Masalits, including close-range shootings.
Khamis Abdullah Abkar, the governor of West Darfur, was slain last month after purportedly accused the RSF and allied militia of committing genocide against the Masalit tribe on Al-Hadath TV.
The RSF has frequently refuted accusations by Human Rights Watch that they were behind the May killings of 28 members of the Masalit community and the injuries of numerous civilians.
The UN reported that at least 37 victims were buried in a mass grave one meter deep and 50 more the next day in the West Darfur region.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced the massacre of civilians on Thursday, saying he is “appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated.”
He exhorted the RSF and all belligerent parties to uphold international law and treat the dead with “dignity,” irrespective of their racial heritage.
