Rhino: Follow-up – The Darfur Justice and Peace Initiative condemned the execution of 23 people on Thursday by the Sudanese army and its allied movements in a public square in the Sudri area of North Kordofan State. The initiative described the incident as “one of the most heinous crimes against the local population,” after the victims were accused of looting one of the area’s markets.
The initiative added in a statement today: (This massacre is not an isolated incident but rather a continuation of similar incidents that have occurred in a number of areas, such as Khartoum Bahri and the notorious incident involving the execution of more than 120 young men from Al-Takaya and Wad Madani, as well as the killing of civilians and their bodies being thrown into the Nile from bridges, the killings in Al-Kanabi in Al-Jazirah State, and the massacres in the villages of Dander and Senga, among others, in various areas controlled by the army. Nor is the killing of the mayor of Al-Kababish and 28 others far from our minds, and the memory of Sudanese in the city of Al-Fula still holds the image of the slaughter of one of the region’s notables in the public square, just as the Sudanese collective memory retains the image of the slaughter of two young men in North Kordofan State near the city of Al-Abyad and the beheading of both of them).
The statement read: (These crimes constitute ethnic cleansing, as they involve the killing of these victims on the basis of their identity and ethnic affiliation, under the pretext of their alleged affiliation with the Rapid Support Forces).
The statement added: (We at the Darfur Initiative for Justice and Peace pray for the souls of the victims—the elders and young people who were treacherously killed in this massacre—and condemn in the strongest terms this horrific crime, which, as we have repeatedly stated, is part of a pattern of systematic crimes committed by the terrorist Islamic Movement throughout its years in power, during which it perpetrated the most heinous massacres in the seceded South, as well as in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile. ‘Khor al-Afn’ and the displacement and refugee camps are nothing but evidence testifying to what the Sudanese people have endured over the past 35 years, during which this terrorist movement has held the Sudanese people in an iron grip).
He continued: (The army of the terrorist Islamic Movement and its allies—who have shown no scruples and have been deterred by neither morality, religion, customs, nor laws in their use of chemical weapons against the Sudanese people and in killing women, children, the elderly, young schoolchildren, and patients in hospitals—will not hesitate to kill young people and execute men in public, mocking all international laws and treaties, as they see the international community as incapable of protecting civilians and unwilling to take any effective steps to stop the violence against them or initiate any measures that would hold these criminals accountable).
He added: (Failure to enforce a policy of no impunity is the path that leads to further massacres and violations against civilians).
