Sudan: Mass graves in West Darfur’s capital haunt remaining residents
Once the thriving capital of West Darfur, al Geneina is now nearly deserted.
Humanitarian volunteers told Sky News around 70% of the city’s half-a-million residents have fled since the start of the war in Sudan and that the bodies littering the streets are now buried at multiple mass grave sites after a huge clean-up operation.
The coordinates of potential mass grave sites on the outskirts of al Geneina shared by C4ADS, a Washington DC-based global security non-profit, have been verified by Sky News through various eyewitness accounts.
A satellite image from May shows regular mountainous terrain just north of the main artery connecting al Geneina to eastern Chad.
This satellite image taken on 18 May highlights the three locations of suspected mass graves
On 6 July, the same three areas are now visibly water-filled due to seasonal rainfall.
Another satellite image taken seven weeks later shows the same three locations filled with water
An eyewitness independently located this site for Sky News using landmarks on the map and says he watched as decomposing bodies were dumped into a body of water at the end of June.
“It was the start of the rainy season and they had disconnected the network so we had to go to the edges of the city to try and make calls,” he said.
The pitch of his voice climbed with urgency as he described the scene.
“After the police station and over the mountain – around 250 metres from a cattle slaughterhouse – I saw a group of scared residents throwing nine bodies into a large pond.”
Read more: Why did violence erupt in Sudan?
‘I lost 14 brothers and sisters’
One volunteer independently verified the location of this grave site and says he was present as 50 bodies were dumped there.
The next day, he was involved in the transportation of another 45 bodies.
“Our group was not happy with how the dead were being treated so we opted out of the burial. We helped with transporting the corpses but did not join for the dumping,” he says.
He identified the victims as being from the African Massalit and Burgo tribes and says that volunteers could not film or even make a call around the site.
“One guy we know was suspected of leaking information and was beaten until his leg broke.”
From the Burgo tribe himself, his own family has suffered from the extreme ethnic violence that ravaged al Geneina.
He says 14 of his brothers and sisters have been killed in al Geneina since the start of the war in April – many of them remained unburied for weeks after their deaths.
One of his sisters, a teenager, was shot in the head and killed in their home – a horrific incident corroborated by a humanitarian worker also in the city at the time.
“I buried my sister 54 days after she was killed. My mother was wounded at the same time and could not leave the house for a long time. She still hasn’t received any medical assistance,” said the volunteer, who is being kept anonymous for his safety.
He and his family are some of the remaining non-Arab residents in al Geneina.
His elderly father and wounded mother make leaving difficult and relocation funds are low after their savings were looted from their home amid the chaos.
The little income he gets from transporting bodies has helped him facilitate the burial of his family members.
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‘Assassination attempts’ on volunteers trying to help
A humanitarian worker who has a long history of advocacy work in al Geneina believes that the city has been ethnically cleansed.
“The janjaweed militias practised forced displacement by burning homes and shelters for the displaced in a brutal and racist manner – killing civilians – which is considered a crime of genocide,” he said.
He added the campaign to tidy up the city’s emptied streets is led by Arab tribesmen and is an attempt to clean up the image of the Rapid Support Forces and their aligned militias who have been caught filling up mass graves.
“The Rapid Support Forces, along with Arab militias, participated by providing digging mechanisms such as bulldozers and trucks – in addition to designating burial areas. Sometimes they even participated with volunteers,” the source says.
Another mass grave site is reported on the northern outskirts of the city, along Tendelti road – a border town which was razed to the ground in May.
And even in this moment of relative calm in al Geneina, those told to bury the evidence of violence are facing violence themselves.
“There have been some assassination attempts in al Geneina these days of some of the volunteers who participated in the preparation and burial of bodies in the mass graves,” he says.
“The latest of which is the attempted assassination of the manager of the Sudanese Red Crescent in West Darfur, who was shot with live bullets and is now under medical care in Chad.”
World
Egypt: Two Britons believed to be among 16 missing as tourist boat sinks after being ‘hit by large wave’
Two Britons are believed to be among more than a dozen people missing after a boat sank in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.
The yacht, called Sea Story, had 44 people on board, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 13 crew.
Authorities are searching for 16 people, including 12 foreign nationals and four Egyptians, the governor of the Red Sea region said, adding that 28 other people had been rescued.
Preliminary reports suggested a sudden large wave struck the vessel, capsizing it within about five minutes, governor Amr Hanafi said.
“Some passengers were in their cabins, which is why they were unable to escape,” he added in a statement.
Survivors rescued from the Sea Story in Marsa Alam. Pic: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Passengers rescued from sunken tourist boat
The people who were rescued only suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scrapes with none needing hospital treatment.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office spokesperson said: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The foreign nationals aboard the 34-metre-long vessel, owned by an Egyptian national, included Americans, Belgians, British, Chinese, Finns, Germans, Irish, Poles, Slovakians, Spanish, and Swiss.
Sea Story had no technical problems, obtained all required permits before the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials.
The four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht was part of a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam following warnings about rough weather.
Officials said a distress call was received at 5.30am local time on Monday.
The boat had left Port Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday and was scheduled to reach its destination of Hurghada Marina on 29 November.
The Sea Story had 44 people on board. File pic: Dive Pro Liveaboard
Some survivors had been airlifted to safety on a helicopter, officials said.
The firm that operates the yacht, Dive Pro Liveaboard in Hurghada, said it has no information on the matter.
According to its maker’s website, the Sea Story was built in 2022.
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The incident comes after the Egyptian Meteorological Authority issued a warning on Saturday about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea.
The organisation had advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.
Some tourist companies have stopped or limited operations on the Red Sea due to the potential dangers from conflicts in the region.
A motion has been filed to drop the charges against Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result.
Mr Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The president-elect pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case was then put on hold for months as Mr Trump’s team argued he could not be prosecuted.
Special Counsel Jack Smith. Pic: Reuters
Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol
On Monday, prosecutors working with special counsel Jack Smith, who had led the investigation, asked a federal judge to dismiss the case over long-standing US justice department policy, dating back to the 1970s, that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
It marks the end of the department’s landmark effort to hold Mr Trump accountable for the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 when thousands of Trump supporters assaulted police, broke through barricades, and swarmed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the US Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Mr Smith’s team had been assessing how to wind down both the election interference case and the separate classified documents case in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory over vice president Kamala Harris earlier this month, effectively killing any chance of success for the case.
In court papers, prosecutors said “the [US] Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated”.
They said the ban [on prosecuting sitting presidents] “is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind”.
Mr Trump, who has said he would sack Mr Smith as soon as he takes office in January, and promised to pardon some convicted rioters, has long dismissed both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case as politically motivated.
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. Pic: AP
He was accused of illegally keeping classified papers after leaving office in 2021, some of which were allegedly found in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
The election interference case stalled after the US Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, which Mr Trump’s lawyers exploited to demand the charges against him be dismissed.
Mr Smith’s request to drop the case still needs to be approved by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
No date had been set for a trial.
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At least 1,500 cases have been brought against those accused of trying to overthrow the election result on 6 January 2021, resulting in more than 1,100 convictions, the Associated Press said.
More than 950 defendants have been sentenced and 600 of them jailed for terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.
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