Civilians in Darfur Are Under Threat of Notorious Rapid Support Forces of the Sudan Government  

Janet Addoh

Residents of Kalma camp were thrown into a state of panic and shock when government forces in 200 vehicles including armored cars and rocket launches invaded the camp on November 1st without any form of provocation. This happened barely a month after the United States eased economic sanctions on Sudan and instead of seeing this as a golden opportunity to implement reforms to better the lot of his citizens, President al-Bashir and his regime rather saw it as a green light to terrorize and intimidate the unarmed and helpless civilians living in deplorable conditions in Kalma camp in Sudan.

This is not the first time the lives of displaced persons in Kalma camp have been threatened and even taken by president al-Bashir and his bloodthirsty troops; on September 22,2017, when Kalma camp residents peacefully protested the visit of al-Bashir to their camp, heavily armed government forces fired live bullets into the crowd and killed five innocent protesters and injured 26 which attracted the condemnation of the United States.

Solution to this crisis should not be limited to verbal or written condemnations by countries. President al-Bashir is the only incumbent president indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and up till now the international community has done little to assist in arresting him but they rather fell for his fake propaganda and narrative that the Darfur crisis is over meanwhile this is extremely contradictory to the brutalities happening on the ground because  Al-Bashir has no respect for the sanctity of life and has therefore never thought of a change of heart neither  have the Janjaweed who have constantly been committing atrocities in Darfur for years and violating the fundamental human rights of Dafuris.

We urge the international community to not look on but rather arise as a matter of urgency and arrest al-Bashir and hand him over to the international criminal court, disarm the Janjaweed and the Rapid Response Forces and extend the mandate of the UNAMID forces to provide adequate protection for the displaced persons.