UK: Ethnic Cleansing Committed in Sudan's Darfur

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Facts

  • The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has reported that, since its conflict began in April, at least 68 villages in Darfur, Sudan, have allegedly been set on fire by rebel armed militias as part of a process of ethnic cleansing.1
  • The data, gathered by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) — which is partly funded by the UK government — uses NASA heat-recognition technology to detect fires. After that, satellite imagery is used to find whether these fires were located in known population settlements, with the CIR then searching social media to connect the data with videos of villages being burned and looted.1
  • Commenting on the analysis, the UK's minister for Africa, Andrew Mitchell, claimed that the data contained 'all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing.' The culprits are believed to be the Bani Halba group, which is loosely associated with the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF). However, the RSF, having frequently denied any connection to the violence, has requested a third-party probe.2
  • Mitchell's comments are the first time the British government has used the term 'ethnic cleansing' to describe the situation in Darfur, with Sudan reportedly seeing the displacement of approximately 5M people since the conflict began.3
  • The conflict is between the RSF, a paramilitary group led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and the Sudanese army, led by the head of the Sudanese ruling council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. While both were part of the ousting of a civilian government during an October 2021 coup, plans to integrate the RSF into the army as part of a transition back to democracy have led to violence.4
  • An alert from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that almost 4K people have died, with approximately 8.4K injured since the conflict began six months ago. UNHCR spokesperson Eujin Byun has claimed that many of the casualties are believed to have been targeted because of their ethnicity.5

Sources: 1BBC News, 2News Central Africa, 3Arab News, 4Independent and 5UN News.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by The Hill. Evidence is mounting that there's an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. While they're still only allegations, it seems likely that the RSF has imposed the most horrifying human rights abuses against civilians, including rape. Without drastic and immediate change, Sudan and Darfur will be plunged back into the depths of a dark humanitarian crisis, with the non-Arab Masalit demographic at extremely high risk.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Sudan Tribune. Marginalized and oppressed minorities in Sudan must not be forgotten, and equal citizenship and unity in diversity must be promoted, or the conflict will never cease. With both sides guilty of committing violence against civilians, respect for human rights must be at the forefront of any peace agreement, while any change must acknowledge the underlying causes of this conflict and make efforts to establish a truly democratic society.

Predictions