The armed insurgency in Ardamata, Sudan’s West Darfur, has resulted in over 800 deaths and over 4.8 million displaced people in the last six months, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). According to a UN statement on Friday, the rising violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has raised concerns that crimes done two decades ago may be repeated.
Ardamata also housed a camp for internally displaced people. Close to 100 shelters have been razed to the ground, while extensive looting, including of UNHCR relief items, has also taken place, the statement said.
Meanwhile, thousands of people were killed across Darfur two decades ago and millions were displaced in fighting between Sudanese government forces backed by allied militias known as the Janjaweed on one side and rebel groups resisting the autocratic rule of President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019, as per the UN.
In June, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, issued a warning that war crimes and crimes against humanity might result from the ongoing fighting in West Darfur, including ethnic-based attacks. Consequently, reports of ongoing sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion of civilians, and targeting of particular ethnic groups alarmed the UN refugee agency.