Asmaa Al-Husseini (Khartoum)
There were widespread condemnations and denunciations in Sudan of the killing of the governor of West Darfur state, Khamis Abkar, in El Geneina, the day before. Calls were also raised to stop the war and restore stability throughout Sudan, especially the Darfur region, in which the conflict takes on ethnic and tribal dimensions that inflame it.
Mesbah Ahmed Mohamed, media official of the Umma Party, told Al-Ittihad that the catastrophic developments and grave violations in the Darfur region must be strongly condemned, calling on both sides of the crisis to stop fighting in Khartoum and in the Darfur region to protect civilians and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
He stressed that there is no way to address the successive crises and the security collapse in most parts of Sudan except by stopping these battles immediately, and resorting to a peaceful solution that addresses the crisis and responds to the demands of the Sudanese people.
For his part, Salih Mansour Matar, a leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, told Al-Ittihad that the crisis in Darfur will not be resolved except by resolving the crisis in Khartoum, pointing out that the crisis in Darfur has deep roots and multiple dimensions, which exacerbates the current conflict that could lead to It becomes destructive for the entire region, stressing that there will be no partial solution in Darfur, and that the matter calls for a total solution to the crises in Sudan.
For its part, the Justice and Equality Movement condemned the killing of Khamis Abkar, the governor of West Darfur, considering it an extension of the egregious violations, killings and widespread looting taking place in Darfur, targeting civilians on the basis of identity and ethnicity, burning villages and destroying hospitals and institutions. The movement affirmed that it calls on the government, the African Union and the United Nations to conduct an extensive and transparent investigation into the events in Darfur, to uncover the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and to provide justice to the victims.
The killing of the governor of West Darfur state constitutes an escalation in the conflict that erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, and coincides with increasing warnings of deteriorating conditions in the Darfur region, which has suffered for two decades from a bloody conflict, especially in El Geneina, the center of West Darfur, one of the states. The fifth of the region located in western Sudan at the border with Chad.
The Darfur region includes about a quarter of the country’s roughly 45 million people. In the past two decades, the conflict has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million others, according to the United Nations.
In a statement, the United Nations Integrated Transitional Support Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) condemned “this heinous act” and called for “the perpetrators to be brought quickly to justice and not to further expand the cycle of violence in the region.”
European Union Ambassador Aidan O’Hara condemned the killing, stressing that “the protection of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid are obligations under international law, and those responsible for violations will be held accountable.”
The Darfur Bar Association condemned earlier killing. And she stressed the need for the urgent intervention of the United Nations and the Security Council to stop the fighting.
The conflict has killed more than 1,800 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), but the actual number of victims may be much higher, according to aid agencies and international organizations.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than two million people have been displaced, more than 528,000 of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Internally, thousands have taken refuge in Madani, about 200 km south of Khartoum, which has remained untouched by the violence.
Twenty-five million people need assistance and protection, according to the United Nations, but as of late May, only 13 percent of the organization’s needs had been funded.
On June 19, Geneva will host a conference chaired by Saudi Arabia, in partnership with a number of countries and international bodies, to support the humanitarian response to Sudan.
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