The Japan Times - Paramilitary chief vows united Sudan as his forces are accused of mass killings

The RSF took the city, the last army holdout in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan, after more than 18 months of brutal siege, sparking fears of a return to the ethnically targeted atrocities of twenty years ago.

Accusations of mass killings have mounted, with the World Health Organization condemning reports that 460 people were killed at a maternity hospital.

Sudanese Arabs are the dominant ethnic group in the country, but the majority in Darfur are from non-Arab communities such as the Fur people.

International powers have struggled for months to mediate an end to the fighting between the paramilitaries and the regular army, raging since April 2023.

And on Thursday, Mohammad Hamdan Daglo vowed to reunify the country by force if necessary.

"The liberation of El-Fasher is an opportunity for Sudanese unity, and we say: Sudanese unity through peace or through war," he declared.

Daglo's paramilitaries now control most of western Sudan, Africa's third largest country, while the regular army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dominates the north, east and centre.

While the army regained full control over the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has set up a parallel administration in the southwestern city of Nyala.

Analysts have warned that the country is now de facto partitioned and may prove very hard to piece back together.

- Hospital killings -

Daglo said in a speech shared on his Telegram channel on Wednesday that he was "sorry for the inhabitants of El-Fasher for the disaster that has befallen them" and that civilians were off limits.

Since the takeover of El-Fasher by the RSF -- descended from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago -- the group has again been accused of carrying out atrocities against civilians, with graphic videos circulating on social media.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said it was "appalled and deeply shocked" by reports that 460 patients and companions were killed at a maternity hospital in the city.

The United Nations has warned of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities" while the African Union condemned "escalating violence" and "alleged war crimes".

The Sudanese army-aligned government, meanwhile, has accused the RSF of killing more than 2,000 civilians and targeting mosques and Red Crescent aid workers in the city.

Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab said late on Tuesday that satellite imagery showed "mass killing events" with "corroboration of alleged executions around Saudi Hospital and a previously unreported potential mass killing at an RSF detention site at the former Children's Hospital in eastern El-Fasher".

It added that there was also ongoing "systematic killing" at one location outside the city.

The lab had earlier warned of a "systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing" of non-Arab communities.

- Truce talks stalled -

El-Fasher had been the last holdout in Darfur of Burhan's forces, and its fall has left the paramilitaries in control of a vast region covering a third of Sudan, with fighting now concentrated in the central Kordofan region.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday reported five Sudanese volunteers killed and three missing in Bara, a city in Kordofan captured by the RSF on Saturday.

Since Sunday, more than 33,000 people have fled El-Fasher for the town of Tawila, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the west, which has already welcomed more than 650,000 displaced people, the UN says.

Around 177,000 people remain in El-Fasher, which had a population of more than one million before the war, according to UN figures.

Satellite-based communications with the city remain cut off -- though not for the RSF, which controls the Starlink network there -- as are access routes to the city despite calls for humanitarian corridors.

AFP images from Tawila showed displaced people, some of them with bandages, carrying their belongings and setting up temporary shelters.

- Outside powers -

Sudan's war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis, with both sides accused of widespread atrocities.

The so-called Quad group -- comprising the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia -- has held talks over several months towards securing a truce.

But those talks have reached an impasse, an official close to the negotiations said, adding that their proposals are facing "continued obstructionism" from the army-aligned government.

While diplomats have preached peace, outside powers, including Quad members, have been accused of interfering in the conflict.

Multiple UN reports have accused the UAE of supplying the RSF with weapons and drones, which Abu Dhabi denies.

Meanwhile, the army has drawn on support from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey.

Sudan has large and coveted gold deposits, exports of which are nearly all funnelled to the UAE, as well as huge amounts of arable land.

T.Shimizu--JT