El Geneina — The mayor of the West Darfur capital El Geneina, Salih Hassan, who fled to Chad, told Radio Dabanga on Monday that attacks against people in Darfur based on their ethnic identities continues in the state capital. "Gunmen have lists containing names of activists, professionals, merchants, and civil leaders. They are searching for their targets in neighbourhoods to assassinate them," he said.
Tens of thousands of people from Sudan are fleeing daily to Chad due to the escalating violence in an around El Geneina. Ethnically motivated killings continue and members of some ethnic groups are not allowed to cross the border.
Hassan added that the war in the city is not between the Masalit and the Arabs. "All ethnicities* that did not join the militias are targeted, which forced most of them to seek refuge in Chad, including Arab tribes."
"Dead bodies remain scattered on the streets, and various public facilities across the state capital."
"This is ethnic cleansing and the international community must activate Chapter VII of the UN charter**," the mayor concluded.
Two weeks ago, four lawyers were deliberately targeted and killed in West Darfur for their involvement in reporting past incidents.
Earlier last month the Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes said that there is an emerging pattern of large-scale targeted attacks against people in Darfur, allegedly committed by Arab militias and some armed men in Rapid Support Force (RSF) uniform.
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Radio Dabanga published a longer analysis of the situation in El Geneina based on witness accounts from people who fled to Chad, Radio Dabanga correspondents, and international health workers.
Displacement
The war currently raging in Sudan has caused a large displacement of people seeking safety into neighbouring Chad. According to the latest figures, more than 190,000 people have crossed the Chadian border so far, and numbers continue to increase.
In a tweet last Tuesday, the representative of the UN refugee's agency Laura Lo Castro said that, "every thirty seconds, five families from Sudan cross the border into Chad through Adré. Following the big wave of refugees on June 14, and June 16, around 4,300 refugees cross the border every day."
A survivor of the El Geneina violence told Radio Dabanga last week that the militiamen ask those fleeing about their tribal background and members of Masalit are not allowed to cross the border into Chad.
*Darfur is home to many tribes and ethnic groups. The main tribes of West Darfur are the Eringa, the Gimir, the Misseriya Jebel, the Masalit and the Zaghawa. The Masalit are a non-Arab ethnic group which straddle the Sudan-Chad border.
**Chapter VII of the United Nations charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".
