By Cecilia Ologunagba<\/p>\n
The UN Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) has expressed shock over the killing of the Governor of West Darfur, calling for a halt to the spiralling violence and for those responsible to be brought to justice.<\/p>\n
UNITAMS , in a statement on Thursday, condemned the killing of Khamis Abbaker who just hours earlier on Wednesday,\u00a0according to news reports, had publicly blamed the deaths of civilians caught up in the violence stemming from the military power struggle across Sudan, on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).<\/p>\n
\u201cCompelling\u00a0eyewitness accounts\u00a0attribute this act to Arab militias and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),\u00a0even though the RSF communicated a denial\u00a0of their involvement to the mission,\u201d UNITAMS said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UN Mission in Sudan calls for the perpetrators to be swiftly brought to justice and the cycle of violence in the region to not expand further.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appeal to the wisdom of the Sudanese people\u00a0not to be drawn into the vortex of hate speech and ethnic polarization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fighting between the rival militaries \u2013 the RSF and the national army \u2013 has left thousands dead or injured since 15 April and displaced some two million people.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the head of UNITAMS Volker Perthes said that in West Darfur\u2019s capital El Geneina, there was an\u00a0emerging pattern\u00a0of \u201clarge-scale targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities, allegedly committed by Arab militias and some armed men in Rapid Support Forces uniform\u201d.<\/p>\n
UNITAMS said Abbaker had been \u201ca key interlocutor in the region\u201d who was one of the signatories of the Juba Peace Agreement in 2020, which paved the way for the transition period towards democratic rule following the ouster of Omar al-Bashir.<\/p>\n
UNITAMS strongly denounced the military escalation in Darfur, urging \u201can immediate cessation of all military operations in order to de-escalate the situation, address the growing ethnic violence,\u00a0allow access to humanitarian aid\u00a0and prevent further deterioration that could lead to a large-scale conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
UNITAMS reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, to ensure the safety and protection of civilians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crimes and violations committed during this conflict will not be ignored\u201d, the statement continued,\u00a0adding that the Sudanese people \u201cdeserve peace, security, and the utmost respect for their human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Violent clashes in and around camps for displaced people in North Darfur have killed over 100 people there,\u00a0UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi tweeted on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He also described as \u201cshocking\u201d the reports of sexual violence against women and girls in the region.<\/p>\n
He warned that this would worsen unless the warring generals agree to end \u201ca fight that is destroying Sudan\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Cecilia Ologunagba The UN Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) has expressed shock over the killing of the Governor of West Darfur, calling for a halt to the spiralling violence and for those responsible to be brought to justice. UNITAMS , in a statement on Thursday, condemned the killing of Khamis Abbaker who just hours …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1832661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,17986,1714,2060,1750,17988,13955,3957,5317],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1832656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1832662,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832656\/revisions\/1832662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1832661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1832656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1832656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advocate.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1832656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}