In December 2020, Sudan started to deploy troops to South Darfur "in large numbers", following recent tribal violence between the Masalit and Fula.

[10] On 16 January fighting between Masalit people and Arab nomads in Al Geneina District, West Darfur, left 84 dead and 160 wounded.

[12] Following the unrest, a high profile delegation authorized by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was sent to the region in order to assess the situation.

[15] On 12 April, following several days of violence in West Darfur that led to the deaths of at least 144 people, chairman of the ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, along with high-ranking security and military officials, visited Geneina, capital of West Darfur, where they held separate talks with the Arab Rizeigat and the non-Arab Masalit tribes.

[1] According to accounts by survivors, massacres were coordinated, specifically targeting Masalit and other dark-skinned inhabitants of Darfur, as opposed to the Sudanese Arab population.

[23] Several other prominent people were killed in attacks on 19 and 20 June, including Sadig Haroun, the Commissioner of Humanitarian Aid in the city, and several mayors and imams.

[24] Numerous villages, neighborhoods, and cultural sites in and around Geneina were destroyed, including the city's Grand Market and the palace of the Masalit Sultanate.

[25] The Sultanate called the situation a "genocide", and footage emerged of corpses being used as barricades, and the bodies of men, women, and children strewn across the streets.

[48] On 10 November 2023, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner, drew parallels between the ongoing violence and the genocide in Darfur recognised by the U.S., where it is estimated that 300,000 people lost their lives from 2003 to 2005.

[50] Josep Borrell, the chief of foreign policy for the European Union, expressed his strong condemnation of the killing of more than 1,000 individuals in Ardamata.

[51] The UK government,[52] witnesses and other observers described the violence in the region as tantamount to ethnic cleansing or even genocide, with non-Arab groups such as the Masalit being the primary victims.

[54] The US government also condemned the atrocities, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as genocide, and imposed sanctions against RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo for his alleged role in the campaign.