Nights of Terror on Gezira: Told by Eyewitnesses
Agencies – Athar Magazine
When the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) invaded Gezira State in mid-December, this coincided with an almost complete disruption of communications lines in Sudan. As the days passed, Sudan turned into a complete network shutdown. The people of the villages in the state of Gezira did not really understand the nature of the soldiers who had just stormed their homes on the backs of four-wheel-drive cars, armed with advanced types of weapons, and varying in appearance, dialects, and motives. These soldiers turned people’s lives into a nightmare in villages that continued to plant, harvest, and supply all of Sudan with the benefits of this agriculture. Now the people of the Gezira go on many roads to unknown places, carrying only the stories of what happened there when the soldiers arrived in the evening, and in the morning they turned their villages into ghosts of fear and hunger and into walls on which the memory of what happened there was written. Hatem Al-Kanani spoke with a number of those fleeing Gezira State, and wrote a report on what happened in Gezira State when darkness descended on it.
Look
The stories narrated by those leaving the villages and cities of Gezira State about the violations that the RSF soldiers continue to commit against the citizens of the state, and those displaced there after the Khartoum War, are more revealing than the language of numbers and successive statements. It is difficult to statistically comprehend the violations since mid-December, when the RSF invaded the Gezira’s cities and villages, especially with the comprehensive communications outage that continued for nearly a month in the country, making it difficult to identify the affected villages and point to them accurately. But the true story is told by those who were there, witnessed what happened, and lived to tell it.
Last month, Mona Mustafa – that is not her real name – arrived in the city of Rabak in White Nile State, coming from “Medina Arab” in Gezira State. Mona says: “I was surprised when I did not find anyone talking about the news of the violations that occurred on the Gezira, and I expected to find a great media resonance with the return of communications networks. “I fear that the souls of those who were hunted by the bullets of the RSF and the bombing of the army’s warplanes will never find justice.”
But the violations themselves, despite their severity, are not all that happened. Rather, the whole matter had repercussions threatening famine in the country, especially since many of the Gezira’s farmers did not complete the winter season harvest of onions, wheat, capsicum, and other crops, in a state that has long gained agricultural and economic value. It is considered the country’s food basket, in addition to reports of crops being destroyed by the Rapid Support Forces.
The RSF took control of the city of Wad Medani in Gezira, on December 18, following the withdrawal of the Sudanese Army’s First Infantry Division from the garrison headquarters and the city, in a move that was popularly described as treason, while the army announced the opening of an investigation into the matter that is still pending.
Eyewitnesses said at the time that members of the RSF spread almost everywhere, and set up checkpoints on the main streets and around government headquarters, and some of them began looting public and private property such as cars and gold jewelry. The control of the RSF extended to large parts of Gezira State, including major cities such as Al-Hassahissa, Rifa’a, Al-Kamilin, and Al-Hilalia.
A number of statements issued by several parties in February attempted to address the violations that occurred on the Gezira, including the Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights, in addition to statements by the resistance committees of Al-Hassahissa, Rifa’a, Medani, Al-Kamilin, and a number of other cities on Gezira, the most recent of which is the statement of the “Emergency Lawyers” initiative issued in This March, including the numbers of deaths and injuries in February and March 2024.
The “Emergency Lawyers” report confirmed that the RSF’s attacks on villages and cities during this period led to the killing of (248) civilians, while (347) others were injured, ranging from moderate to serious.
A survivor from one of the Al-Manaqil villages, speaking to “Athar,” said that the situation created a state of insecurity, followed by unforeseen mass panic attacks, which also affected people’s lives, especially since the villages are inhabited by farmers and shepherds. “Practicing agriculture and grazing has become risky and futile. In fact, we are heading towards famine if we leave death alone,” he adds.
The health situation on Gezira also portends a health disaster with a lack of food and the closure of hospitals and treatment centers, which has dire effects on patients with various ailments.
In addition to all of this, the cities of Al-Faw, Gedaref, Sennar, Kosti and Rabak are facing overcrowding with newly displaced people from Gezira, exceeding the numbers that were contained in the shelter centers of displaced people from Khartoum, according to reports received by the “Athar” network from the sides of those centers. All of this created a situation that one of the recent Arabs leaving the city described in his testimony to “Athar”; as “Nightmare.”
“Medina Arab City” is in range of looting
In the early morning clouds of February 28, residents of the village of “Medina Arab” were surprised by a clash between a RSF coming from Wad Medani – which it has controlled since mid-December – and a mobile army outpost. Like other villages and cities of Gezira, Medina Arab population practices agriculture, and it is located on the road linking Wad Medani and Al-Manaqil, 30 kilometers west of the capital of Al- Gezira State, the city of Wad Medani. The goal of the RSF attack was to reach the nearest area under the control of the Sudanese army; The city of Al-Manaqil, but the attack carried an obvious goal, which was the spoils of the citizen’s harvest, his income, his money and his property. Before the sound of the war battles ended, groups of RSF members began to enter homes and seize citizens’ property of all kinds, cars, goods, money, and mobile phones. The resistance of defenseless citizens does not prevent them from obtaining what they want, as the price of objection is a bullet, as Yassin narrates. Abdul Hamid, for whom we chose a name other than his own in this report, is a resident of Medina Arab and works as an employee there.
Yassin and his family witnessed the use of all types of heavy and light weapons there, and witnessed the panic and fear it caused among the people. Yassin has two children who more than once had to tuck them under the beds in the room, and he spent time trying to build curtains that might protect them from stray bombs and ammunition.
Yassin was watching from the wall of his house as combat vehicles and motorcycles stormed the neighborhood, then moments of silence passed during which the sound of ammunition stopped, announcing the RSF’s control over the city: “They broke the door of the yard and entered the house. Then I entered the room to follow what was happening from inside, and they arrived at the door and I was Close to him, they fired weapons at him. I told them that there was no need to use weapons to break down the door. I would open it for them, but when I opened it, I found the weapon pointed at my head. Yassin says to “Atar.”
The soldier told him: “We have two enemies, the army and the vehicles.” Yassin, of course, hides his astonishment at the soldier’s speech, who goes to a cart in the house and asks him to fasten its tires. Two soldiers accompany Yassin to the room to bring him the key to the wheel, and terror fills the hearts of his family, as they watch the soldiers threaten him with weapons. Yassin begins to tie the car’s tires, and while he is doing so, feathers fall from a nearby cannon, forcing the soldiers to leave. But before they went, they asked him for the car key. Yassin did not refuse, but suggested that they leave the key in case another group came.
Yassin’s intuition was correct. Ten minutes later, another group arrived at his house and asked him for the key while shouting at him, “Kaizan, remnants.” Yassin says: “When I told them that the key was taken by another group that followed them, they did not believe it and threatened to kill him with a Kalashnikov if I did not hand them the key. I suggested that they start the car through the switch wires.” Yassin remembers those moments and says: “During this argument, everything was terrifying and dangerous, and one of the soldiers was putting a knife to my wife’s neck, and the weapon to my back.” Yassin completed tying the tires, and then the first group came to clash with the second group inside the house. Then it was agreed between the two groups that the second group would take possession of the car and bring someone to repair it. Thus, Yassin witnessed the end of the deal that led to the destruction of everything
“At that time, the RSF took control of the city. We could hear from our homes the sounds of market doors and shops being broken, and ovens, groceries, gas cylinders, and crops were also looted. The comprehensive looting process began in the city, where there was nothing left but water,” Yassin continues his narration: “The situation continued like this until four in the morning. They came forcefully into the rooms and began asking us and looting us. We lost what to eat and drink.”
Since sunrise the day after Medina Arab was invaded, its people decided to leave their homes in the state they were in. Yassin and his family were among the number of Medina Arab people fleeing the city, leaving behind life in its literal sense: their history, their farms, their land, and the homes they built, stone by stone. “We covered nearly thirty kilometers on foot for a whole day. No bread entered our stomachs for 48 hours, and in distant villages we found means of transportation that took us to the city of Al-Manaqil.”
Yassin estimates that more than 90 percent of the Medina Arab population that he knows have been displaced, and he talks about hearing during his displacement about cases of rape or attempted rape, and flogging with whips with lead bullets tied to their heads, and there are those who were detained inside the city to be used as human shields.
During his displacement trip to Al-Manaqil, Yassin saw elderly and disabled people being carried by their families into the hallways, and in every village to which they fled, RSF members chased them, invading the villages to get people’s money, and killing anyone who opposed them and refused.
Despite the promising production of wheat and onions in the Gezira project, many farmers had their crops looted, and whoever sold their crops had their money stolen. The last thing Yassin saw while he was leaving was a number of RSF personnel throwing sacks of onions to pave one of the potholes filled with water so their cars could pass through it. The irony that neither Yassin nor the farmers who lost everything know, and perhaps not even the soldiers know, is that the price of a bag of onions has tripled in Darfur and Kordofan, and is increasing as it crosses the border through the most difficult and remote roads from the Gezira state.
Since the invasion of the city of Wad Medani, last December, the city has remained a center for maneuvers between the two sides of the war, as there is an army base west of the city in the village of Wad Rabia, sending 4 or 6 vehicles since eight in the morning on the outskirts of the city. As for the movement from Medina Arab to Al-Manaqil, it was almost normal throughout that period, as Yassin describes.
South of the Gezira
Mahmoud left the city of Wad Medani, after it was invaded by the RSF on December 18, to move to his village (Shabouna Omar) in the Al-Hush countryside in the south of the Gezira. In his interview with the “Athar” correspondent, Mahmoud said that the RSF had been crossing for nearly a month. They do not enter their village, as they have used it as human shields against army air strikes.
“Their violations began with a skirmish in the village of Wad Yassin, after its residents burned one of the RSF vehicles. They responded by plundering the village, then they headed to the neighboring village of Doha, then the village of Qusayrab, in which they found no resistance, then our village of Shabouna Omar.”
“The residents came out to them unarmed at the outskirts of the village, and a child was killed as a result, as was my uncle Abdul Rahim.” Mahmoud recounts the events of the first day before they had to leave the village, and adds: “On the second day, and on one occasion, the RSF personnel came on motorcycles and combat vehicles.” They pointed weapons at our heads, and whenever someone resisted, they killed him. Five people were killed that day, after which most of the villagers headed to neighboring villages around Mount Moyeh via carts. “They were chasing us from village to village.”
Thus, the state of Gezira is going through its nightmare without being noticed, with the scarcity of information and news, and it is the state with the most economic value in the country. Maysaa Al-Nadhir tells the story of her departure with her six-year-old son and her mother from her village of Barqu Wad Hawba – located west of the Sinnar Sugar Factory and an hour and a half south by car from Medani – after all means of life became impossible. She says to “Atar”: “We used to eat dry bread and lentils with lentil firewood. The mills are closed, there is no water, and there is no gas or electricity.”
“Members of the RSF had been entering since the morning…and in the last days, they had entered the houses, looted them, and asked for some girls to marry. Then people began to leave the village, especially those who had money,” Maysaa recounts.
“As for electricity, whenever it is repaired, army aircraft bomb it, causing the windmills to stop.
It is impossible to bring water,” she added: “Transportation prices from the village to Sennar have increased.”
3 thousand to 20 thousand pounds. The vehicles take a circuitous, indirect route.”
Maysaa and her family went out in trucks in the middle of the night, as all the other vehicles belonged to the RSF. After leaving the area of influence of the RSF, the truck driver tried to bypass the army bases because there was a curfew. This was done by explorers who assured him that the road was free of army checkpoints. This was The only effective solution after a communications outage. That evening, Maysaa had to spend the night with her child and mother, with more than 80 people sleeping on the roof of the truck. That night, Maysaa witnessed the departure of more than nine trucks carrying a number of children, women, and the elderly.
Many of those who left their homes in Gezira State had no way to obtain information, and thus it was difficult for them to determine their final destination. The interruption of communications networks and the cessation of your bank’s service made it difficult to make practical or final decisions. In the case of Maysaa and her family, they had to cross long, distant roads to Sennar.
She tells “Atar”: “We headed west from our village, passing through a group of villages towards Mount Moyeh on a winding road until we approached White Nile State, and then we returned east towards Sennar. Some residents of our village chose to walk to the village of Umm Jubair, up to the mountains and then Sennar. All the residents of the village left, and a large part of them chose to go to the Saqdi Mountains and Mount Muwayh, where there are army forces on the road between the cities of Sennar and Rabak, and they lived in schools, while others went to the east of Sennar and even Atbara.
Wad Matar village
In the village of Wad Matar, which is located near Medina Arab, the doctor and daughter of the village of Wad Matar, Mona Mustafa, lost her grandfather while he was defending his family, when he resisted members of the RSF who wanted to enter his house. She says: “He was killed without the villagers attending his funeral.” Everyone was preoccupied with his and his family’s condition and securing their exit from the village to relative safety.”
Before the RSF stormed Lud Matar, the groups of displaced people warned their residents of what was coming. At 2 p.m. on March 5, they heard a call from the mosque alerting people to the entry of the RSF. The army positions in the village were unable to resist the large force. Dr. Mona, who headed with her family to the White Nile, told “Athar”: “We kept inside the houses hearing the sound of bullets, before the RSF elements stormed the houses in search of vehicles, weapons, and money, and snipers took their positions above the village’s cistern and the tall trees next to the canal.”
“The situation worsened when my grandfather confronted the soldiers to prevent them from entering the women and children. They killed him relentlessly, and the random shooting continued, and those who were wounded were wounded. Those injured in the legs survived, and others had serious injuries that were difficult to transport, so they died,” Mona narrates, adding: “Some members of the village formed a resistance group that was able to injure members of the RSF.”
“Immediately after covering the bodies, we moved with the survivors, on foot and some by rugs, to nearby villages. We did not develop a clear plan for displacement, and we have no family in other states, and no money with which to move. Forced displacement forced people to move to nearby Kanabi or relatively safe villages.
Doctor Mona’s family chose the White Nile State as a place of displacement, and during the trip they crossed the city of Al-Manaqil, which is still controlled by the Sudanese army. It was the only route they could take, and they were encouraged to do so by the presence of a communications network in the White Nile cities.
The road to the city of Kosti was not easy, and there was no place to spend the night at sunset while the roads were crowded with nighttime looting groups: “Our regiment and the displaced people passed through most of the villages of the Manaqil countryside, and we stayed in one of the villages of the Al-Jamousi locality, and then we headed on the Sinar-Aslaya-Rabak-Kosti asphalt road.”
According to Mona, the prices of foodstuffs in her village and neighboring villages have doubled since the fall of Medani, and the only source for obtaining them was the city of Al-Manaqil, but they also remained under threat, and most merchants hid most of their goods for fear of looting. As for medicine and treatment, they are completely non-existent, as Mona points out, and most doctors left the state of Gezira and its villages after the invasion of Wad Medani.
Most of the winter crops, including wheat and cabbage, were not harvested until the residents of Wad Matar were displaced: “We heard that some began harvesting after the area’s relative security stability, but I expect that this was done with traditional tools and methods because most of the harvesters are stopped and there is no fuel, so it will take time.” And more effort.”
“When we arrived in Kosti, we found large numbers of residents of our village, many of whom could not obtain housing. Rents were high and shelter homes were crowded, so some lived with their relatives.”
In Al-Manaqil – which is so far under the control of the army – the director of the Gezira Scheme, Ibrahim Mustafa, said in a recent statement that the beginning of the wheat harvest will be next week, stressing that all preparations for the harvesting operations have been completed. He reported that 770,000 acres were harvested during the winter season, equivalent to 8-58% of the agricultural crops, adding that the productivity of the acre reached 15 quintals. He explained that the arable area of the project, 2.2 million acres, is sufficient to feed all Sudanese, adding that there is a plan to reform the project, and he praised the farmers who made very great efforts during the war period.
Al-Faw…displaced people in the open space:
More than 290 families arrived from East Medani, after its invasion in mid-December, to live in the courtyard of Al-Sharqiya Basic School for Boys in Al-Faw locality of Gedaref State, and most of them are children, young people, and the elderly, as described by the school’s Wad Medani displaced official, Badr al-Din Jamal al-Din, Speaking to the “Athar” correspondent. The school’s classrooms had previously been filled with displaced people from Khartoum. Badr Al-Din, who arrived from the Al-Inqaz neighborhood in Medani with 15 members of his extended family, says: “We witnessed cases of children dying due to the cold last winter, and now, in Ramadan, we face the devastating heat of the sun, and we have no shade other than the school trees, while some families made small arbors and covered them.” With mobile phones.” A large number of those displaced from the eastern neighborhoods of Medani chose to go to Al-Faw, as it is the closest area to Medani where there is an army, and a large number of those injured as a result of the battles headed to Gedaref to receive treatment.
According to Badr Al-Din, the smallest family that was displaced from Wad Medani to Al-Faw has three members, and the largest has 19 members, and all of them are located under the school trees because the classrooms are where the displaced people of Khartoum live. The displaced people of Wad Medani are waiting for what may be left of the aid that the organizations provide to the displaced people of Khartoum, to be distributed to them, because their names have not yet been approved by the organizations.
Nahid Koko, a displaced person from eastern Medani with her eight children, told “Athar”: “All the aid comes in the name of the displaced people of Khartoum… flour, lentils, oil and salt… and there are aids from the people and nearby neighborhoods… there are four schools that include displaced Medani, which is Abu Mazen.” Dar Es Salaam, Al Sharqia for girls, and Al Sharqia for boys.”
Badr Al-Din points out the large number of deaths due to diseases, and he also pointed out the emergence of some cases of depression and other psychological illnesses inside the shelter center.
The social researcher, Amal Al-Aqib, who came as a displaced person from Khartoum to Al-Faw, says that the displaced are still apprehensive and worried about the RSF entering Al-Faw, in addition to the arduous journeys they endured from Gezira State to the shelter areas, the exploitation of merchants and vehicle owners, and the doubling of transportation prices that were It is difficult to obtain it naturally in these circumstances, all of which create situations of psychological blockade.
Most of the displaced people who arrived in Al-Faw city reside in shelters in schools and some government facilities. The number of schools that took advantage of shelter centers is about 24 schools, six of which are in the city of Al-Faw, and the rest of the schools belong to villages and residential neighborhoods, all of which are filled with displaced people, as the punishment confirms, while families found opportunities to stay with their relatives or their acquaintances or rent rooms or small homes.
Al -Aqab says: “These families live in light of the most difficult economic conditions, food lack, medicine and shelter, in addition to psychological and social pressures and family instability, and intimidation of the possibility of displacement to another region in the event of the RSF in the city.”
The “Athar” correspondent indicates that the Rapid RSF are located in nearby areas and adjacent to Faw from the southwest, such as Nubia, Al -Khayari and Migger five, and the latter is about 10 kilometers from the city of Faw. They are still in a state of flight with the army’s eastern forces in Faw.
If the war has lost Khartoum its political value as a state holding center, then the entry of the state of Gezira – the heart of the agricultural and economic country and its food basket – no crime that will open the doors of famine wide open, and its wound will remain blood until the end of the war.
