Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Geneima (Agenzia Fides) - The governor of West Darfur state and head of the Sudanese Alliance, Khamis Abdallah Abkar, was killed on Wednesday, 14 June, two months after the start of the armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum.
The news was spread by local media "The Sudanese situation is entering a new phase – reads the press release – that of political assassination. A group of RSF militiamen kidnapped Abkar in Geneina and then brutally murdered him. In recent days, the governor had issued a statement in which he accused the RSF, which militarily control the capital city of Geneina, of committing crimes against civilians by burning entire neighborhoods and occupying hospitals and government offices. The assassination was documented on video where the head of the RSF forces appears present at the time of Abkar's arrest. Khamis’s assassination came two hours after a telephone interview with Al-Hadath TV in which he accused the RSF and Arab armed militias of killing civilians in the capital city of West Darfur state, and appealed to the international community to intervene and protect civilians. "There is an ongoing genocide in the region and therefore we need international intervention to protect the remaining population of the region" he said. West Darfur state witnessed fierce intercommunal fighting between Arab militiamen and the Massalit, one of Darfur's indigenous African ethnic groups that have been subject to violence since the start of the war in the region in 2003, which erupted after the start of hostilities in Khartoum between the army and the RSF on April 15. This umpteenth criminal incident also fuels the conflict between the different tribes in the area. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 16/6/2023)
