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Tag: Mass grave

  • Dead women and children among discovered mass grave in Sudan

    Dead women and children among discovered mass grave in Sudan

    In what is believed to be the largest mass grave discovered since Sudan was plunged into war, numerous bodies have been found, allegedly victims of a Sudanese paramilitary group.

    According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, there is “credible information” indicating that last month, 87 bodies, including women and children, were buried in a shallow grave in West Darfur.

    The victims include members of the Masalit tribe, an ethnic African group that has become a target in the escalating conflict between rival military factions, resulting in ethnically motivated massacres.

    These revelations come as Egypt initiates a new mediation effort between the warring factions. Previous attempts at truces and ceasefires have proven unsuccessful, leading to ongoing violence.

    Since clashes between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group erupted in the capital city of Khartoum in April, the conflict has spread to the fragile regions of Darfur and Kordofan.

    History repeating itself

    More than three million people have left their homes, while basic services such as healthcare have broken down. The UN said the first 37 bodies were buried in the grave outside Geneina on June 20. Another 50 were dumped the following day.

    Darfur has become a centre for the conflict as the violence has spread, with RSF troops and allied Arab militias accused of rampaging through the area and attacking African ethnic groups.

    The killings have raised fears of a repeat of mass killings two decades ago, when the Sudanese government was accused of genocide crushing a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups in Darfur, killing some 300,000 people.

    The RSF denied involvement in the mass grave. A senior official in the force told Reuters it “completely denies any connection to the events in West Darfur as we are not party to it, and we did not get involved in a conflict as the conflict is a tribal one”.

    Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and hors de combat individuals, and I am further appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated.”

  • Malawi: Ex-president’s step son arrested over country’s mass grave

    Malawian police arrested former President Peter Mutharika’s stepson as part of an investigation into the discovery of an unmarked mass grave in the northern Mzimba district last month.

    Malawian authorities said the 30 bodies found were most likely Ethiopian immigrants.

    According to police, their investigations led to the arrest of Tadikira Mafubza as well as the impoundment of a vehicle suspected of transporting the deceased men.

    A pathologist who is part of the team performing autopsies on the bodies said that preliminary results have been presented to Malawi police and that a full report will be submitted at the end of the month.

    Malawi is grappling with the problem of human trafficking in which organised syndicates traffic men, women and children from East African countries including Ethiopia and Somalia. From Malawi they are further trafficked to South Africa, Europe and the United States.

    Syndicates are thought to involve influential Malawians.

    In 2020, the Malawi High Court sentenced former Home Affairs Minister Uladi Mussa and an immigration officer to five years imprisonment for helping non-Malawians obtain Malawi passports.

    Mr Tadikira has not made any public comments, but the former governing Democratic Progressive Party have described the arrest as part of a political witchhunt against Mr Mutharika’s family and his supporters.

  • Five children’s bodies were retrieved from a mass grave in eastern Donetsk

    Five children’s bodies were recovered from a mass grave in a town formerly controlled by Russian soldiers.

    According to investigators, four of the children were buried in a mass burial at a cemetery in Lyman, while another was exhumed from a makeshift grave dug by his mother in their yard.

    It has been preliminarily established they all died from shrapnel wounds as a result of Russian shelling, the National Police of Ukraine said in a statement posted to Telegram.

    Policemen retrieved girls born in 2021, 2019, and 2008, and boys born in 2011 and 2012 from the mass graves.

    The two youngest girls are sisters.

    After the forensic examination, the children will be reburied.

    “Investigative actions have been ongoing for two weeks in Lyman — at the site of the largest mass burial in the de-occupied part of Donetsk region. Investigative teams work continuously, searching for and interviewing relatives, establishing the history of all the dead,” the statement said.

    As of the morning of this morning, 35 military personnel and 131 civilians were exhumed in the Kramatorsk district.

    Among the civilians were  67 men, 56 women, and five children. The gender of six people is unknown.

     

  • Ukraine war: Officials say that hundreds of graves have been discovered in the city of Izyum

    A few days after the town was retaken from Russia, Ukraine claims hundreds of burials have been discovered outside of Izyum.

    In a woodland outside of the town, advancing Ukrainian forces found wooden crosses, the majority of them bearing numbers.

    Authorities announced that some of the tombs would be opened for exhumation on Friday.

    Early reports indicate that some of the fatalities may have perished from shelling and a lack of access to healthcare, while it is yet unclear what happened to them.

    There are also signs that some of the graves could belong to Ukrainian soldiers.

    Regional police head Volodymyr Tymoshko told the BBC more than 400 bodies were thought to have been buried at the site.

    Izyum, invaded in the early days of the war, was used by Russia as a key military hub to supply its forces from the east.

    In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “necessary procedural actions” had begun in the area.

    “We want the world to know what is really happening and what the Russian occupation has led to. Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izyum… Russia leaves death everywhere,” he said. “And it must be held accountable for that.”

    The Ukrainian leader was referring to alleged mass graves found this spring in Bucha, near the capital Kyiv, and also near Mariupol – the key south-eastern Ukrainian port now occupied by Russian troops.

    Andriy Yermak, the head of President Zelensky’s office, tweeted a photo of the alleged mass burial site, also saying that more information was expected on Friday.

    Much of Izyum lies in ruins, with one local politician telling reporters that up to 80% of the town’s infrastructure has been destroyed, and bodies are still being discovered in the rubble.

    Izyum and a number of other cities in the Kharkiv region were liberated earlier this month during a swift Ukrainian counter-offensive that appeared to have surprised Russian troops and left them unprepared to defend their positions.

    Ukraine says it has identified more than 21,000 possible war crimes – including killing civilians and rape – committed by Russian troops since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the country on 24 February.

    Investigators and journalists found what appeared to be evidence of the deliberate killing of civilians in Bucha and other nearby areas.

    Ukrainian forces said they found mass graves and evidence that civilians had been killed after their feet and hands were bound.

    The International Criminal Court has already sent a team of investigators and forensics experts to Ukraine to investigate this.

    US President Joe Biden and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both accused Russia of carrying out war crimes in Ukraine.

    The Russian government has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, accusing Ukraine and the West of fabricating evidence.