
One of the most important human rights organizations, New York-based Human Rights Watch, issued an official statement on Wednesday, in which it accuses the Sudanese government of randomly killing civilians in Darfur, without any concern to the loss of civilian lives, Reuters reports.
The statement added that the main proof for such a serious accusation is the fact that members of the organization had interviewed witnesses of Sudanese military aircraft targeting several areas in villages in Northern Darfur, areas that had been intensely populated. "Government forces are bombing villages with blatant disregard for civilian lives. A penalty for indiscriminate bombing in Darfur is U.N. Security Council sanctions, which should be imposed now", the Africa department manager at Human Rights Watch, Peter Takirambudde, stated.
He added that members of the organization had interviewed some locals and the latter stated that they had seen Antonov type military aircraft dropping bombs on the densely populated areas. Takirambudde explained that this used to be a common war practice of the Sudanese government that the latter employed during the civil war against militants in the southern part of the country. "This method is so inaccurate that it cannot strike at military targets without a substantial risk of harm to civilians. Deliberately attacking civilians is in all circumstances prohibited and a war crime", part of the official statement read, quoted by Reuters.
These attacks performed by the governmental troops have already created many victims, including a woman who was killed and seven children that were severely injured, the Human Rights Watch statement highlighted, adding that these casualties were recorded in Hassan, North Darfur last week, when an Antonov plane dropped a bomb on the woman's house.
In reply, the Sudanese government stated that it had indeed sent a 10,000 military troop contingent in Darfur, specifically in the western part of the region, in order to fight all the other armed factions that had not signed the peace agreement in May.