BBC
Sudan’s Darfur region is facing a growing risk of genocide as the world’s attention is focused on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, a UN expert warns.
“We do have circumstances in which a genocide could be occurring or has occurred,” the UN Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, told BBC’s Newsday programme.
She said many civilians were targeted based on their ethnicity in Sudan’s besieged city of El Fasher, where fierce fighting has intensified in recent days.
More than 700 deaths have been reported in 10 days by a medical charity in the city.
El Fasher is the last major urban centre in the Darfur region that remains in the hands of the Sudan’s army.
The military has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in a civil war that has killed thousands and forced millions from their homes.
The situation is unfolding to a “Rwanda-like” genocide of 1994, Ms Nderitu said, citing a UN analysis on the increasing risk factors.
“Increased hostilities in El Fasher have now opened a really alarming chapter in this conflict,” she added.
“I’m calling for attention to this particular conflict. I have been trying to get my voice out but my voice is drowned out by other wars – in Ukraine and Gaza.”
