Human Rights Watch Urges Probe into Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur

FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, sits at her makeshift shelter near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad May 15, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, sits at her makeshift shelter near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad May 15, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
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Human Rights Watch Urges Probe into Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur

FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, sits at her makeshift shelter near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad May 15, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, sits at her makeshift shelter near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad May 15, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo

A prominent rights group on Tuesday called for the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, including what it says were “summary executions” of 28 non-Arab tribesmen by the Rapid Support Forces in May.

Human Rights Watch said several thousand RSF members and their allies rampaged through the Darfur town of Misterei, home to the non-Arab Massalit tribe, on May 28.

The assailants killed the tribesmen and also left dozens of civilians dead or wounded, the New York-based watchdog said. The attack came as the RSF and Sudan’s army have been engaged in monthslong fighting that the United Nations says has brought Sudan to the brink of a full-scale civil war.

“The mass killings of civilians and total destruction of the town of Misterei demonstrates the need for a stronger international response to the widening conflict,” said Jean Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch.

HRW urged the ICC to investigate the attack on Misterei and others elsewhere in Darfur as part of its investigation into the region's genocidal war in the early 2000s.



At Least 10 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza, Medics Say

Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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At Least 10 Killed in Israeli Strikes on Gaza, Medics Say

Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, December 22, 2024. (Reuters)

At least 10 people were killed, including five journalists, and more than a dozen wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza early on Thursday, medics with the Gaza health authorities said.

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many people remained trapped under the rubble.

In a separate incident, five journalists were killed when their vehicle was struck in the vicinity of Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, the enclave's health authorities said. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel.

Palestinian media and local reporters said the vehicle was marked as a media van and was used by journalists to report from inside the hospital and Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli army said its air force attacked the vehicle in a "targeted manner", adding members of the Islamic Jihad militant group were inside.

On Wednesday, Palestinian group Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.

More than 45,361 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday.