Mass grave with scores of corpses found in West Darfur, says United Nations

The corpses of scores of persons reportedly executed by Sudanese paramilitaries and associated militias have been discovered in a mass grave in West Darfur, according to the UN. The remains of the 87 persons, some of whom belonged to the ethnic African Masalit group, were thrown in a one-meter (about three-foot) shallow grave close outside the West Darfur city of Geneina, according to “credible information” collected by the UN Human Rights Office. The first 37 dead were buried on June 20, according to a United Nations statement issued from Geneva. The next day, another 50 bodies were dumped at the same location. Seven women and seven children were among those buried. Since April 15, when tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open battle, Sudan has been shaken by bloodshed. Darfur has been at the centre of the 12-week battle, which has devolved into ethnic warfare, with RSF forces and associated Arab militias fighting African ethnic groups. According to rights groups, the RSF and associated Arab militias rampaged through the western region, causing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes, with many crossing the border into neighbouring Chad. Throughout the province of West Darfur, entire towns and villages have been burned to the ground and looted. Darfur had been the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, when ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of discrimination. Former dictator Omar al-Bashir’s government was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes, known as Janjaweed, who targeted civilians. JanJaweed fighters were folded into the RSF.