Attack near El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan; more than 100 people killed, more than 100 others wounded and more than 48,000 displaced.

The Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation (DNMD) condemns the attack by armed militias and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Karynding IDP Camp near El Geneina, West Darfur State, Sudan.

The tensions worsened on 29 December, 2019 when Karynding Camp youths from the Masalit Tribe blocked the main road between Zalingei and El Geneina to show their discontent to the authorities.  They were attacked by RSF militias. The force molested a number of women and murdered farmers.  The RSF also lost one soldier.

On the same day, Muhammad Bashir Deedan, an Arab by tribe, an RSF soldier and a resident of Umm Dwayne al-Quni (neighboring Karynding Camp to the north), was stabbed in the stomach with a knife while coming back from Nyala to his home.  He had just entered SYSY camp. He died instantly. The Masalit youths killed him as revenge for his tribe’s having on several occasions committed atrocities against the Masalit.

On 30 December, 2019, at 7:00 am, everything worsened when armed Janjaweed, together with Rapid Support Forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Musa Ambello and Mayor Abdul Rahman Abdul Khari, began the offensive against Karynding Camp.

Witnesses asserted that more than 60 people, wearing RSF uniforms and driving in more than 10 Land Cruisers, participated in attacks against the IDPs (internally displaced persons). About 15 members of the Sudanese Police Force, some of whom belonged to the Masalit tribe, exchanged gunfire with the armed militias.  Traffic from all directions around the camp was stopped due to this offensive by the Rapid Support Forces. The RSF went on to  burn civilians who were still inside their houses, and livestock were also completely burned together with marketplaces.  DNMD has the names of fifty-two people killed in this massacre.

After having done all that, the soldiers fired live bullets in an indiscriminate manner towards the civilians, looted the property of civilians in El Geneina itself, which left a many victims and wounded.

The families of victims said there are not any tribe conflicts between Arabs and non-Arabs.  Even some of the victims of this massacre belong to Arab tribes.

And according to the evidence of witnesses, victims said this attack was done by the RSF and government of El Geneina.  It was these two entities who supported the militias and planned the offensive against Karynding IDP Camp.

As a result of this incident, at least 48,000 IDPs have been re-displaced to El Geneina, where they reside in temporary accommodation centers and lack access to food and other basic provisions. Others have fled to neighboring Chad and villages near the camp

• Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation, requesting to the transitional government to provide treatment and rehabilitation to all those wounded and to families of victims in the attack and put in place measures to protect civilians through in the Darfur region
• DNMD appeals to UN Panel of Experts on Sudan to take into account these reports in their regular review of the situation on the ground according to their mandate of monitoring violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
• Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation ask for Investigation into Krinding Camp Massacre by international criminal court (ICC).