Worthy Christian News > World News > EU Warns Of Genocide In Sudan; Pope Urges Aid (Worthy News-Investigation)

EU Warns Of Genocide In Sudan; Pope Urges Aid (Worthy News-Investigation)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KHARTOUM (Worthy News) – The European Union warned Sunday of another genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, while the pope expressed concerns about a humanitarian crisis just days after Worthy News saw footage of an apparent massacre there.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell cited witnesses saying that more than 1,000 Masalit community members were killed in Ardamta, West Darfur, by allies of Hamas and Hezbollah, both seen as terrorist groups by the West.

Worthy News, in recent days, obtained footage about the possible massacre of these non-Arab Sudanese people but awaited confirmation from numerous sources amid a confusing and escalating conflict.

“These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wider ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by [Sudan’s paramilitary force Rapid Support Forces] RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur, and comes on top of the first wave of large violence in June,” Borrell said. “The international community cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in Darfur and allow another genocide to happen in this region.”

In horrific video footage, gunmen could be seen arriving on motorcycles and in the backs of Toyota pickups, brandishing Kalashnikovs and dressed in the telltale sand-colored uniforms of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The feared RSF is primarily composed of the Janjaweed militias, which fought for Sudan’s government during the 2003-2020 War in Darfur, where its actions qualified “as crimes against humanity,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Hundreds, hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the war, and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, ousted in 2019, was indicted “for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity” by the International Criminal Court.

BACK WITH TERROR

This month, the RFS was back with acts of terror, the footage investigated by Worthy News purportedly showed. Over three days, they killed hundreds of men and teenage boys in a Darfur refugee camp, according to witnesses, local human rights groups, and international aid agencies.

The dayslong attack in Ardamata came after the RSF took over a military base in the town following brief fighting on November 4 with troops there, said Salah Tour, head of the Sudanese Doctor’s Union in West Darfur.

He added in published remarks that the military withdrew from the base and that around two dozen wounded troops fled to Chad.

With the army now gone, RSF fighters worked their way systematically through the tents, shacks, and mud houses of the Ardamata camp, shooting male residents, witnesses said.

Footage reviewed by Worthy News showed at least a dozen bodies lying on the ground, and a video revealed militants gloating over several corpses and brandishing their rifles.

Another clip revealed the heavily armed fighters whipping and terrorizing a large group of men as they crouched on the ground. Another one showed an enthusiastic gunman pointing his rifle at a dead body, one of the many lying there.

The murdered men were reportedly separated from women before the massacre took place.

BLACK AFRICANS SUFFERING

“Unbelievable footage of jihadi militias whipping, torturing, and terrorizing black Africans from the Masalit tribe in Darfur, captured after the massacre took place in the Geneina area,” conservative pundit and expert on the region Walid Phares said.

“The terrified look in their eyes tells you what they fear. A video from previous centuries,” he added on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Reports from West Darfur unveil that [at least] 773 African civilians, including mostly teenagers, but women and elderly as well, have been massacred by the Jihadi Janjaweed in the Geneina area. Reports talk about hundreds burned and many detained and brutalized on their way for an exodus.”

He added that the Janjaweed militias “are allies to a network of militias in the Middle East and North Africa that includes Hamas and Hezbollah” known for atrocities against Israel. “Voices from Darfur are urging the U.S. and Europe, as well as the Arab League, to intervene at once.”

The targeted settlement in western Darfur was home to about 30,000 non-Arab Sudanese people who had fled earlier bouts of fighting in the country’s civil war, which started nearly seven months ago.

The United United refugee agency UNHCR said more than 800 people have been reportedly killed, slightly less than the roughly 1,000 deaths reported by the EU.

Another 8,000 people were said to have fled to neighboring Chad, but the UNHCR suggested that was underestimated due to challenges registering new arrivals to Chad.

SHELTERS RAZED

The agency said about 100 shelters in the town were razed to the ground, and extensive looting has taken place there, including humanitarian aid belonging to the agency. At least one photo appeared to show a man lying next to clothing with the United Nations logo, Worthy News observed.

“Twenty years ago, the world was shocked by the terrible atrocities and human rights violations in Darfur. We fear a similar dynamic might develop,” added U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply disturbed by eyewitness reports of serious human rights abuses by the RSF and affiliated militias, including killings in Ardamata and ethnic targeting of the Masalit community leaders and members.

The Masalit are an ethnic group inhabiting western Sudan and eastern Chad who speak the Masalit language. Their towns are now “razed, homes burned, villagers massacred, whipped. The jihadi terror militias regime [carry out l] the gradual genocide. [However] who will protest for these poor Africans in the West?” Walid Phares noted. “Certainly not the allies of Hamas,” he wrote on X.

Sudan has been engulfed in chaos since mid-April, when simmering tensions between military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open warfare.

The war came 18 months after both generals removed a transitional government in a military coup. The military takeover ended Sudan’s short-lived fragile transition to democracy following a popular uprising that forced the overthrow of longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

The U.N. and international rights groups also accused the RSF and its allied Arab militias of atrocities in Darfur, which was the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s. Such atrocities included rape and gang rape in Darfur but also the capital, Khartoum. Almost all reported cases were blamed on the RSF.

MORE MASS GRAVES

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in July a mass grave was found outside Geneina with at least 87 bodies, citing credible information.

Such atrocities prompted the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to declare that he was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the latest fighting in Darfur.

The latest conflict has killed about 9,000 people and created “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” according to the U.N. Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths.

More than 6 million people were also forced out of their homes, including 1.2 million who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, according to the U.N. figures.

The fighting initially centered in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, but quickly spread to other areas across the East Africa nation, including Darfur.

It turned the capital into a battleground, wrecking most of the civilian infrastructure, most recently the collapse of a bridge over the Nile River connecting Khartoum’s northern part with the capital’s sister city of Omdurman. Both sides traded accusations of having exploded the Shambat Bridge.

The latest fighting and reported massacre added to anxiety among other minorities, including Christians living in the Islamic Northeast Africa nation. “Persecution of Christians remains at a high level in Sudan, and there are fears this will worsen amid the ongoing unrest,” warned advocacy group Open Doors.

CHRISTIANS IN DANGER

“After [President] Omar al-Bashir was ousted in April 2019, Sudan’s transitional government introduced exciting changes to the legal framework guaranteeing basic human rights for all Sudanese, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion,” the group observed.

“However, mass protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in January 2022, and there are fears that Sudan will return to the authoritarian years of the former president.”

Open Doors said, “This could undo the positive steps made towards religious freedom under the transitional government. Although the death penalty for leaving Islam has now been abolished, there are fears that this punishment could be reinstated.”

As the war bloodshed worsened, Pope Francis appealed Sunday for access to humanitarian aid to those suffering from another armed conflict and urged to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

After his sermon to the faithful in Vatican City, he decried the many victims, including millions of internally displaced persons and refugees in neighboring countries. “I am close to the sufferings of those dear populations of Sudan, and I address a heartfelt appeal to local leaders to facilitate access to humanitarian aid,” he said.

“And with the contribution of the international community, [they should] work in search of peaceful solutions. Let us not forget these brothers and sisters of ours who are in distress!” the pontiff added.