Sudan Conflict: 87 People Found In Darfur Mass Grave, UN says

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was “appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated”.

He called for an investigation into their deaths and said the RSF was obliged to treat the dead “with dignity”.

Earlier this week, the RSF rejected allegations from Human Rights Watch that they had killed 28 members of the Masalit community and injured dozens of civilians before destroying the town of Misterei in May.

An adviser to the RSF leadership, Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim, told the BBC the clashes there were part of an ongoing civil war between Arab groups and the Masalit “which is old and renewed”.

The Masalit people once lived under a sultanate in West Darfur, most of which was incorporated into Sudan more than 100 years ago.

They are predominately Muslims and have accused successive Sudanese governments of promoting “Arabism” – overlooking them for basic services such as education and health.

There are concerns that attacks by the RSF and Arab militias against the Masalit community could result in a repeat of the 2003 Darfur killings, when 300,000 people were killed by the Janjaweed militias, who later grew into the RSF.

The UN has already received reports of Arab militia targeting Masalit men and said the conflict has taken on an “ethnic dimension”.