Human Rights Watch said today (Wednesday) that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan targeted, ill-treated, and killed people with disabilities during their attack and following their takeover of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
The organization noted that this is the first time it has documented violations of this type and on such a scale.
Emina Cerimovic, associate director of the disability rights division at Human Rights Watch, said the organization has been documenting abuses against people with disabilities in armed conflicts around the world for more than a decade.
However, she added, “this is the first time we have documented this type of targeted abuse and on this scale.”
The organization interviewed 22 survivors and witnesses from El Fasher and concluded that RSF fighters targeted civilians with disabilities as they attempted to flee.
Cerimovic said: “The Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, burdens, or dispensable people.”
She added that fighters accused some victims, particularly amputees, of being wounded combatants and summarily executed them, while others were beaten, abused, or harassed because of their disability, with fighters mocking them as “insane” or incomplete.
