Sudan’s civil war is taking a jarring turn in Darfur, where an Arab-led militia is now using state-of-the-art drones and execution squads to dominate the region’s Black population.
Humanitarian groups say the violence has been escalating since the militia seized control of El Fasher, the largest city in the region. Videos shared online by the Sudan Doctors Network and other local rights groups appear to show militia members shooting unarmed civilians at point-blank range in the city on the fringes of the Sahara. In the streets, dead bodies are scattered alongside burned-out vehicles. At the only functioning hospital, the World Health Organization reported that the rebels killed all 460 people inside the main ward, including patients, caregivers and health workers.
Rights researchers already are warning that the killings have the potential to surpass the genocide that played out in Rwanda just over 30 years ago. The group behind the violence, the Rapid Support Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has previously been accused by the U.S. of pursuing a genocide of Darfur’s Black population. Two decades ago, its predecessor was involved in the killing of more than 200,000 people in Darfur.
This time, the killings are the work of a closely-drilled and well-armed rebel force that already has established a parallel government to run Darfur, an expanse of western Sudan roughly the the size of Spain. RSF fighters are armed with bomb-carrying Wing Loong II and FeiHong-95 drones, made in China, and supplied by the United Arab Emirates to help expand its own interests in the region. Diplomats and U.S. officials also say the wealthy Gulf state is also supplying howitzers, heavy machine guns, and mortars, with U.S. intelligence agencies adding that the U.A.E. has been accelerating the flow of materiel to the RSF in recent months and enabling it to launch fresh offensives.