A civil rights advocacy group in Nigeria, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the widespread killings of trapped civilians in their houses in Khartoum, Sudan, by fighters belonging to the Sudanese Army and a para-military combat group. HURIWA said the silence by the rest of Africa to the ongoing unnecessary and unlawful killings of civilians by these misguided military officers paid from Sudanese taxpayers’ money is a horrendous crime.

HURIWA said the combat between these two power-hungry military Generals and their fighting forces resulting in the mindless killings of innocent civilians caught unawares and unable to find any escape routes out of Khartoum, was to put it mildly, shameless, callous, absolutely intolerable and must be halted to stave off further mindless slaughtering of civilians.

HURIWA described the reported attacks at hospitals by these fighting forces as war crimes and urged the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, to publicly threaten to list the two fighting military Generals who instigated the power-grabbing war in Sudan for possible prosecution for war crimes, as a way to dissuade the fighters from going ahead with the reckless, mindless and irrational exchanges of deadly gun fires that have led to many fatalities that would have been avoided.

HURIWA, which expressed shock and consternation that the Nigerian government has yet to take steps to rescue Nigerians trapped inside of the war ravaged war in the Sudanese Capital, stated that the fact that President Buhari’s administration was incapable and unwilling to stop genocides and mass killings going on inside of Nigeria since 2015, shows his weakness in intervening effectively to stop the war in Sudan. “He who can’t stop internal genocides can’t possibly mediate successfully in wars fought outside of our shores,” HURIWA submitted.

The group challenged the African Union Military Force to intervene to stop the ongoing large-scale killings of civilians in Sudan by the two warring parties.

The group noted that the war in Sudan has created entertainment for Western televisions, just as the United Nations that couldn’t even stop the illegal war in Ukraine launched by Russia has proven unable to halt the killings in Sudan. It accused Western jurisdictions of flooding Sudan with weapons of mass destruction which are emboldening the lawless military officers in Sudan.

HURIWA recalled that clashes between Sudan’s military and the country’s main paramilitary force have left at least 150 dead, while control of the Presidential Palace and the International Airport in Khartoum was in doubt after disputed claims from both sides, in fighting that threatens to destabilise Sudan and the wider region.

HURIWA recalled that the clashes erupted amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of Sudan’s military regime.

The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, while the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militia, follow the former warlord, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The power struggle has Its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler, Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.

HURIWA recalled that when an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats in Khartoum warning in early 2022 that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In recent weeks, tensions have risen further.

The rights group Is therefore calling on civil rights groups in Africa to raise their voices to demand an end to the war in Sudan forthwith.

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