At least 13 mass graves have been found near the Sudanese city of El Geneina as a result of attacks on civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and other militias in the region, Volker Perthes, the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Sudan and the head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), said Wednesday.
"The UN Joint Human Rights Office received credible reports about the existence of at least 13 mass graves in El Geneina and its surrounding areas as a result of the RSF and Arab militias’ attacks on civilians, with the majority of these civilians from the Massalit community [local on-Arab ethnic group]," Perthes told the UN Security Council meeting.
Perthes added that the mission and the UN colleagues are "documenting these violations and recall that these acts, if verified, may constitute war crimes."
He added that at least 5,000 people have been killed and more than 12,000 people have been injured since the beginning of the conflict in Sudan.
On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF. RSF commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo accused Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military and the chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council, of being reluctant to hand over power to the civilian government. The parties to the conflict have since introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires, but none has helped settle the conflict.
Over 3.7 million people were internally displaced and more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees sought safety and protection across the border due to the conflict, according to UN figures.