New report: Sudan using notorious militia to curb migration flows to Europe, EU risks being complicit in human rights abuses
Washington, D.C., April 6, 2017 (SSNA) — A report published today by the Enough Project details how a new European Union migration management partnership with Sudan is supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a brutal militia that evolved from Sudan’s genocidal Janjaweed militia.
The report, “Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s Migration Partnership Legitimizes Sudan’s ‘Militia State’,” authored by Suliman Baldo, highlights that by extending material and technical support to the Khartoum regime, the EU risks not only supporting the RSF but also underwriting Sudan’s “militia state” and an elaborate web of corruption linked to atrocities and human rights abuse.
Suliman Baldo, report author and Senior Advisor at the Enough Project, said: “The EU’s ‘Better Migration Management’ program in current form will subsidize one of Sudan’s most dreaded militias, one with a trail of atrocity crimes spanning the country. Equally damaging, it will legitimize an entire militia system that sustains Khartoum’s abusive regime. In doing so, the EU risks its treaty commitments to support good governance and democracy, undermines its intention for positive re-engagement in the region, and tarnishes the EU’s role as a champion of human rights and basic dignity.”
The report details how EU support for the RSF could ultimately worsen irregular migration to Europe and escalate violent conflict within Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
Baldo added: “The EU’s effort to stem irregular migration at the source should not come at the cost of gross violations of the human rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Sudan.”
In recent years, the RSF has been transformed, re-armed, and re-branded by the government, from a genocidal militia deployed in Sudan’s Darfur region, into a national counterinsurgency force under the command of the country’s notoriously abusive intelligence services and was more recently integrated into Sudan’s national army, with direct command line to the presidency.
- Link to full report:http://eno.ug/2oaRUbM
- Executive summary in Arabic:http://eno.ug/2nfHtEr
- Executive summary in French:http://eno.ug/2nHhlhb
- Executive summary in German:http://eno.ug/2nNVTIc
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The Enough Project is an atrocity prevention research and policy non-profit organization, builds leverage for peace and human rights in Africa’s deadliest conflict zones by working to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough, and its investigative partner The Sentry, aims to counter armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of ivory, gold, diamonds, conflict minerals, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org.