Mass Atrocities in Darfur: Refugees International

Newly arrived refugees from Darfur in the Gaga refugee camp in eastern Chad. Nearly 90 percent of new arrivals since April 2023 are women and children. Photo by Refugees International.

Twenty years on from the Darfur genocide, mass atrocities are once again underway. With more than 10 million people displaced and half its population facing acute food insecurity, Sudan is now the largest displacement crisis in the world and Darfur has become the worst of Sudan’s crises.

Some half a million refugees have fled Darfur for eastern Chad where they join about 400,000 refugees who had been living in camps since the earlier mass killings in Darfur. The new displacement has overwhelmed an already faltering humanitarian response.

Refugees International’s Daniel P. Sullivan visited eastern Chad last November. He spoke with newly arrived Sudanese refugees and long-term residents of the refugee camps. These interviews made clear that Sudan is not “just” another civil war with an under-resourced aid response—it is one of the worst global humanitarian and human rights crises with the capacity to destabilize the region. The international community must respond with urgency and commitment.

Twenty years on from the Darfur genocide, mass atrocities are once again underway in Darfur. As a larger war continues to ravage the country of Sudan, a disturbing new wave of ethnically targeted killing has been unleashed by a militia descended from the groups that carried out the original genocide. But global action has been tepid and ineffective as the killings mount. With Darfur’s former peacekeeping mission now withdrawn, global diplomacy focused elsewhere, and wildly inadequate levels of aid, there is little in place to prevent the current atrocities from devolving into another mass-mortality catastrophe.

Many of the same atrocities seen in Darfur 20 years ago – including potential genocide – are unfolding again today. Once again, these atrocities are driving mass forced displacement and growing humanitarian needs. Most deaths to date have been due to violence, but without increased relief aid, many more people will die due to hunger and disease in the months ahead.  With more than 10 million people displaced and half its population facing acute food insecurity – including nearly 5 million at the brink of famine – Sudan is now the largest displacement crisis in the world, and one of the worst humanitarian crises. Darfur, with rising hunger and the specter of genocide, has become the worst of Sudan’s crises.

Since April 2023, at least 13,000 people have been killed as a result of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This is likely much higher, as the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan reports 10,000-15,000 deaths in El Geneina, Darfur alone. Attacks against civilians in Darfur by the RSF and allied militias have been marked by atrocities and led to a faster pace of displacement than during the first months of the infamous “first genocide of the 21st century” in Darfur two decades ago. Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad share accounts eerily reminiscent of the genocidal acts of the 2000s: house to house searches, looting and burning of villages, extrajudicial killings, mass graves, and widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, all targeting “Black African” tribes.

Refugees International visited eastern Chad in November of 2023, interviewing both newly arrived refugees and long-term residents of the refugee camps. The interviews made clear that mass atrocities are ongoing in Darfur, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and – once again – potentially genocide. Many refugees just arriving across the border reported severe abuses in the town of Ardamata, where an estimated 800–1,300 ethnic Masalit people were killed in the first two weeks of November.

It is also clear that failure to increase humanitarian assistance to eastern Chad and to secure access for aid into Darfur will lead to many more deaths, much as the death toll in Darfur 20 years ago shifted from direct killings to a phase of mass starvation and illness in a “genocide of attrition” in the years that followed. Yet, the humanitarian responses in Sudan, Chad, and for the region remain woefully underfunded at just around 40 percent of assessed needs in 2023.

In eastern Chad, the addition of half a million refugees to some 400,000 refugees who had been living in camps since the earlier mass killings in Darfur, has completely overwhelmed an already faltering humanitarian response. Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world, now hosts the most refugees per capita in all of Africa. UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs are scrambling just to provide the most basic of lifesaving needs – food, water, emergency medicine. They are unable to provide adequate shelter or more than minimal psychosocial support to a highly traumatized population, some 85 percent of whom are women and children. As one humanitarian worker described to Refugees International, the response in eastern Chad was the most under-resourced she had seen so many months into a crisis.

Urgent international action is needed on Darfur, as well as Sudan more broadly, to halt further atrocities. In December 2023, the United States made an official atrocity determination for Sudan, citing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Now, the United States and other governments must back that determination with concrete measures. These should include diplomacy to address Sudan’s civil war and, specifically, the atrocities in Darfur. To lead these efforts, the United States should appointment a Presidential Envoy with knowledge of Sudan and familiarity with key players in the region, and adequate support staff. 

Additional pressure must be placed, both on the warring parties and on those countries and companies supporting them through funding, political support, and provision of weapons. The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) documented supplying of weapons to the RSF should be thoroughly investigated and met with appropriate censure and possible sanctions such as the blocking of future arms sales to the UAE. The United States and others must also increase support for evidence collection and accountability efforts. Finally, the United States and other donors should step up emergency support for Sudan and neighboring countries hosting Sudanese refugees, including Chad. 

The bottom line is that Sudan is not “just” another civil war with an under-resourced aid response. It is one of the worst global humanitarian and human rights crises with the capacity to destabilize the region. The civilian population – especially in Darfur – is being subjected to mass atrocities reminiscent of the genocide at the turn of the century. Lives are being lost that could be saved. It is high time that the international community engage with the requisite urgency and commitment.

Recommendations 

The African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and countries with influence over the warring parties must:

• Significantly strengthen diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Sudan and secure humanitarian access through higher level political engagement. Prevention of atrocities in Darfur should be prioritized – as distinct from broader peace negotiation efforts – given the high risk of further atrocities and the poor prospects for a political solution in the near future.

• The United States should appoint a well-resourced and appropriately empowered high-level Presidential Envoy for Sudan with experience and stature with key players in the region and the clear backing of the White House. 

• The United States and other countries of influence should support evidence collection and accountability measures in Sudan including through the Sudan Conflict Observatory, the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, the International Criminal Court, and any future credible accountability process within Sudan.

• Hosts of ceasefire talks should prepare a monitoring mechanism to ensure protection of civilians, whether through the African Union, IGAD, a revitalized UN political mission, or the possible deployment of peacekeepers.

The UN Security Council and its individual members should:

• Immediately investigate RSF General Hemedti’s command responsibility for the RSF’s atrocity crimes in Darfur and elsewhere. These investigations should trigger concrete actions to hold him accountable, potentially including a travel ban, designation for UN or U.S. sanctions, and potential referral to the International Criminal Court. 

• Investigate the role of the UAE in supplying weapons to the RSF – in violation of the UN Security Council arms embargo for Darfur – and follow with possible UN or bilateral sanctions such as denial of arm sales to the UAE.

• Visit eastern Chad and invite Darfur refugees to present before the Security Council to raise awareness of the situation.

The government of Chad should:

• Take immediate steps to halt the reported UAE shipments of arms from Chad into Darfur and commit to upholding the UN arms embargo on Darfur.

• Halt the de facto policies restricting the number of refugees that can legally work, and also support and empower refugee-led efforts – like the peer groups and refugee doctor groups working together in the Adre refugee site – to allow greater capacity for the humanitarian response.  

• Streamline the process for providing visas and travel permissions for international humanitarian workers to operate in eastern Chad and allow the temporary establishment of offices, expansion of services, and use of more tents for food distributions in Adre transit site, until relocation is possible.

• Further resource the efforts of government bodies including the National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees and Returnees (CNARR), to increase capacity to provide services for new arrivals.

Donor countries must:

• Support a massive scale-up in humanitarian aid. In Sudan, this should include greatly increased funding for UN appeals (which were funded at only 40 percent in 2023) and substantial funding for Emergency Response Rooms and other local mutual aid groups within Sudan. In eastern Chad, this must entail a surge of humanitarian support to meet basic food, water, health, shelter, psycho-social, and protection needs; emergency and development support for Chadian returnees and host communities; and a scale-up of cross-border delivery of aid from eastern Chad into Darfur.

• Prioritize gender-based violence programming as soon as refugees enter Chad in line with principles laid out in the global Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence in Emergencies and the U.S.-specific Safe from the Start ReVisioned Initiative.

• Improve coordination of the humanitarian responses within Sudan and in surrounding countries including establishing a regional humanitarian country team forum and considering appointment of a regional humanitarian coordinator.

Methodology and Research Overview

A team from Refugees International, including a local Chadian humanitarian consultant, traveled to N’Djamena, Abeche, Farchana, and to several refugee sites in eastern Chad in November 2023 to assess the conditions and challenges related to the Sudan crisis response in Chad. The team spoke with newly arrived refugees from Darfur, refugees living for several years in the camps in eastern Chad, humanitarian workers, UN and government officials, and experts. The team visited dozens of refugees in Adre, Ambelia, Farchana, and Gaga. This research trip and report build on earlier reports based on trips to Sudan’s borders with Egypt and South Sudan since the crisis began in April 2023.