Sudan’s war in Darfur is in its second year, echoing the horrors of 2003 with no resolution in sight. Since tensions escalated into full-scale conflict in April, tens of thousands have been killed and wounded, and more than 9 million forced to flee as the region spirals into one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. What is most chilling, survivors say, is the calculating way the Arab-dominated militant forces — known interchangeably as the Rapid Support Forces or the Janjaweed from two decades ago — are using unfathomable tactics to break civilians, particularly those belonging to the ethnic African Masalit tribe.
“First, they invaded homes and insulted the people, saying they were dogs, insects, and the equivalent of the ‘N’ word. In successive home invasions, they stole more and more, until there was nothing left that hadn’t been stolen or destroyed and nothing for the Masalit to come back to,” Tom Prichard, Executive Director of the NGO Sudan Sunrise, told the New York Sun. “Males over nine were killed, and often after extreme humiliation — like being paraded in public walking on all fours like dogs.
RSF fighters told one man to cry in front of his family, and then when he was executed, his family was told that he was a coward.” This was just the beginning of the suffering. “When men were killed, and the families would bury the bodies, the RSF would come back and force survivors to dig them up, sometimes several times,” he continued.
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