A new statement by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI), The Escalating Risk of Genocide in Darfur, Sudan: Urgent Appeal for Protection, calls on the U.S. and other foreign governments to make it an urgent priority to act individually and collectively to compel the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and militias allied with it to cease carrying out attacks targeting members of non-Arab groups and to protect populations that are currently threatened with genocide in Darfur.
Since violent conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023, serious violations of international humanitarian law appear to have been committed by each of the principal parties to the conflict – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF. Particularly alarmingly, photographic evidence, satellite imagery, and testimonies published as of August 20, 2023, indicate that at least six of the Human Rights Related Risk-Factors for Genocide developed by JBI in cooperation with the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide have been committed by the RSF and allied militias against non-Arab groups, particularly the Masalit, in Darfur. These include the widespread commission of human rights abuses targeting members of particular ethnic groups such as destruction and looting of property; denial of access to basic necessities; forcible transfer; killing and enforced disappearances, including of community leaders; denial of freedom of movement; and the commission of sexual violence.
JBI has previously appealed for effective international action to respond to the genocide committed from 2003-2005 against some of the same non-Arab groups in Darfur that are once again being targeted with serious patterns of violations again today. The reported violations being documented in Darfur are a shameful reminder of the consequences of inadequately responding to risks of genocide.
Regrettably, for the most part, the international actors and foreign governments that are endeavoring to bring about an end to the broader conflict in Sudan have not yet responded to mounting evidence that a serious risk of genocide exists in Darfur by taking specific actions commensurate with it. While welcoming the August 9, 2023, warning by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield to the UN Security Council that “History is repeating itself–in the most tragic way possible” in Darfur, JBI calls for the U.S. and foreign governments to take additional actions to respond to this risk as a matter of priority, in line with the obligation in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide for States to “employ all means reasonably available” to prevent genocide from taking place. Specifically, JBI calls on the U.S. and other governments to:
- Urgently undertake diplomatic efforts to mobilize governments to express concern about the risk of genocide in Darfur at the highest levels of leadership and to take actions aimed at addressing this risk;
- Make it a diplomatic priority to impede the ability of the RSF and allied militias to obtain weapons and other forms of support that are enabling them to carry out ethnically-motivated violence in Darfur;
- Take measures to protect civilians in Darfur and Sudanese refugees in Chad and ensure they have access to humanitarian aid;
- Engage representative Darfuri stakeholders in all ongoing processes to negotiate solutions to the conflict in Sudan; and
- Encourage UN leaders to undertake, and States to support and initiate, fact-finding efforts that include an assessment of whether the obligation to prevent genocide has been triggered in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, and to make their findings public, and urge all UN system actors to (i) report on and express concern to relevant stakeholders when they become aware that human rights violations constituting risk factors for genocide are occurring, (ii) avoid taking actions that aid forces engaged in abuses constituting risk factors for genocide, and (iii) avoid repeating past failures in this area, for example as occurred in Myanmar in the context of the genocidal attack against the Rohingya.
The full JBI statement can be viewed here.