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If you look at a map of the West Darfur region of Sudan, you’ll see a town called Misterei. It’s southwest of the regional capital, El Geneina, near the border with Chad. It used to be home to more than 40,000 people, mainly ethnic Massalit.

I say “used to be” because the town of Misterei has been destroyed.

Shortly after sunrise on May 28, thousands of fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias arrived on motorcycles, horses, and pickup trucks, surrounding the town. There was a brief clash with a small number of ethnic Massalit fighters trying to hold the town, but the defenders were quickly overrun.

The assailants – armed with assault rifles, recoilless rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and vehicle-mounted machine guns – advanced through the town.

Survivors described the method to the horror. Some fighters entered houses, killing men inside and forcing other residents, mostly women and children, outside. Fighters on motorcycles then chased people through the streets. RSF pickup trucks parked at neighborhood exit points and shot at civilians fleeing.

Some residents sought safety in schools and in the mosque, but the attackers pursued them there as well. Assailants repeatedly entered classrooms looking for men and summarily executed those they found. Two women told us how they sprayed a classroom with bullets, severely injuring three women and two children, while demanding:

“Where are the men? Where are the boys? We want all of them! We want to kill them! Why didn’t you just flee and leave the country? Why are you still here?”

The RSF – an independent military force that has been in armed conflict with the Sudanese military since April – and its Arab militia allies pillaged the town. They looted residents’ property, stealing livestock, seeds, money, gold, mobile phones, and furniture.

Finally, they set the homes ablaze and burned most of Misterei to the ground.

In the evening, the attackers withdrew from the town, leaving survivors to deal with bodies in the streets and inside houses and schools. At least 59 people were buried in mass graves. Local officials say 97 people were killed. Human Rights Watch recorded the killing of at least 40 civilians.

Thousands of residents fled across the border to Chad, where our researchers spoke with them to help piece together the events of this massacre. Our team also analyzed satellite imagery and found that Misterei is not alone. Six other towns and villages in West Darfur were also burned down.

In this newsletter, we have repeatedly drawn attention to escalating ethnic attacks in West Darfur in the context of Sudan’s conflict, and we’ve highlighted the desperate need for international attention to this crisis.

How many more massacres like this one – how many more towns will be destroyed – before the UN Security Council takes action?

They dumped people in the desert.

Tunisian security forces rounded up Black African migrants and asylum seekers and took them to the remote buffer zone at the Tunisia-Libya border. Since the beginning of July, they have abandoned hundreds of people there, including children and pregnant women.

For days, these people were stuck in the middle of nowhere, unable to enter either country. They had little food and no medical assistance.

The group, which includes people with regular and irregular legal status in Tunisia, were all expelled collectively, without due process. That’s against international law, of course. They also reported violence by authorities during their arrest and expulsion.  

Yesterday, Tunisian authorities finally started relocating them to shelters in three Tunisian towns, but there are still concerns over treatment.

The context this is all happening in, both nationally and internationally, could hardly be more grim.

At the national level, the mass expulsions come in the wake of Tunisian President Kais Saied’s inflammatory, racist rhetoric against Black Africans, which we reported here back in March.

At the international level, well…

In June, the European Union announced Brussels would hand the Tunisian government 100 million euros “for border management” and “to support a holistic migration policy rooted in the respect of human rights.” The announcement came during a visit by top EU politicians to Tunis and a meeting with President Saied.

The complete moral bankruptcy of EU migration policy rolls on.

(written by Chiara Cera)

For the second time this month, Bahraini authorities have blocked Shi’a worshippers from attending Friday prayers at the largest Shi’a mosque in the country. 

These restrictions were authorities’ response to protests that followed authorities’ detention of a prominent Shi’a cleric of the mosque. 

Prior to his arrest, Sheikh Mohammad Sanqoor had called on the Bahraini authorities to share information on the status of prisoners held in Jau Prison, after their families heard they were being abused there.

Bahraini authorities have discriminated against the Shi’a community for years. In 2016, they targeted Shi’a clerics and arrested human rights defenders from Shi’a backgrounds.

UN human rights experts at the time called on the authorities to end their persecution of Shi’as.

Seven years on, the same call could be made today.

(compiled by Aiza Rodrigues Akhtar) 

• Guatemala: Respect Election Results (HRW) 
• Libya jails 38 over deaths in Mediterranean Sea smuggling case (Al Jazeera) 
• India: Manipur women demand end to ethnic violence (DW) 
• Jenin: Palestinian boy killed during Israeli assault was unarmed – family (BBC)

Yesterday’s article on Russia’s sham proceedings against the Azov Brigade, which is yet another example of Russia showing complete disregard for international law in its bloody invasion of Ukraine, was republished in the Czech outlet Britské listy.