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While the world turns its attention elsewhere, the specter of a new genocide looms over Sudan’s western Darfur region, an American researcher and academic has warned.
David Simon, director of the Yale University Genocide Research Program, pointed out in an article in The Washington Post that the Rapid Support Forces, which are waging war against the Sudanese army, control three of Sudan’s countries and four main roads leading to the regional capital of El Fasher, while the government forces and local militias allied with them are barely holding their ground.
For more than a month, the Rapid Support Forces – a paramilitary force rebelling against government forces – have been besieging the city of El Fasher, which has a population of more than 2.5 million, as the city’s population has sought refuge there due to displaced people from other towns across Darfur.
The article states that although the siege of El Fasher has only just begun, the situation was already dire long before this. In February, international monitors estimated that a child died every two hours in the Zam Zam displacement camp outside El Fasher. Now, aid is no longer arriving and severe famine seems imminent.
Simon, who is also a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, believes that if El Fasher falls, the RSF will have almost complete control of western Sudan and therefore the upper hand in the conflict. This war for control of the country foreshadows another large-scale genocide in the troubled region.
The Rapid Support Forces are on the verge of successfully taking control of Darfur, and once El Fasher falls, they may have the opportunity to complete what the author of the article calls their “genocidal plan.” In the first decade of this century, they were known as the Janjaweed militias, allied with the regime of … former President Omar al-Bashir.
Simon called on the world to respond quickly to what is happening in Darfur, despite dwindling options, which suggest the best course of action now is to negotiate a ceasefire and allow aid to enter the city.
The only other option, he argues, is to deploy a peacekeeping force to protect civilians with the approval of the United Nations. In that case, the United Nations would probably have to refer to the African Union to determine the source and organization of the force, although the United States and European countries should be ready to provide equipment, the U.S. researcher added.
He suggested that the first priority of the peacekeeping operation would be to prevent direct attacks on civilians in El Fasher and its refugee camps, and then to ensure the safety of the city’s airport so that humanitarian aid can be delivered. He added that a permanent solution to the crisis would require the Sudanese themselves to reach a permanent political solution, suggesting that this would be a solution that would require a strategy to hold accountable the perpetrators of the horrific crimes in this conflict.
Source: The Washington Post
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