UN Security Council, US warn of imminent ‘large-scale massacre’, ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s North Darfur

A senior US official has warned of an impending “large-scale massacre” in Sudan’s North Darfur region, echoing an earlier “deep concern” expressed by the UN Security Council over an imminent attack on the city of al-Fashir by a paramilitary group.

The more than 2 million people in al-Fashir are “on the precipice of a large-scale massacre. This is not conjecture. This is the grim reality facing millions of people,” the US ambassador to the United Nations said earlier this week following a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan.

It follows a warning by the UN Security Council (SC) issued last Saturday “over an imminent offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militias” against what is the last major city in the vast, western Darfur region not under control of the RSF. The UN SC met behind closed doors to discuss the situation and was briefed by UN political and humanitarian officials.

UN Security Council has repeatedly expressed its concern over ethnically-driven killings against non-Arab groups in Sudan’s North Darfur after the RSF and its allies swept through four other Darfur state capitals last year. The Arab-dominated paramilitary RSF is made up of elements of the Janjaweed fighters who are blamed for carrying out a genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s.

“A crisis of epic proportions is brewing, and to avoid further death, destruction and suffering, five things need to happen, immediately,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “First, the RSF must end its siege and buildup of military forces in al-Fashir and swear off any attack on the city. All parties to the conflict must take urgent steps to de-escalate.” The city functions as the main humanitarian hub in west Darfur, home to around a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people.