Sudan War: When Human Beings Are Reduced to Commodities
Report – Sudan Events
As the war drags on, widens in scope, and spreads geographically, so too have the atrocities committed by militia forces that have looted everything from Sudanese homes—cars, furniture, even floor tiles, rooftops, and electrical wiring—until the violations reached the human being himself, who has become a target for sale and ransom.
The militia has abducted thousands of girls from their homes in Omdurman, Bahri, Khartoum, Gezira, and El Fasher, turning them into a source of income by selling them in markets reportedly set up for this purpose in areas such as Saraf Omra, Mellit, Zalingei, El Geneina, Khor Jahannam, and elsewhere. More recently, the trade has expanded to include young men and adult males—particularly those known to come from wealthy families or to work in commerce.
This practice has extended beyond the militia itself to include criminal gangs (“shafshafa”) who operated alongside it during its presence in cities before it withdrew and left them behind. These groups, in addition to acting as informants, have continued to follow the same methods and objectives in raising money through abduction and ransom—an approach long adopted by the militia and still in use.
In the past week alone, no fewer than 55 abduction reports were recorded in areas under militia control. Families of the abductees were able, through contact with the perpetrators, to confirm that their relatives were still alive and had been kidnapped for ransom.
The Dar Hamr Emergency Room, for example, issued a statement saying it had monitored a series of violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces militia in Al-Wad Banda locality, West Kordofan, including abductions for ransom. It reported that the militia kidnapped an employee working at an Areba telecommunications tower and demanded a large ransom for his release. The statement also cited the abduction of citizen Nasser Ali Karamallah, a spare-parts trader, whose family was asked to pay two billion Sudanese pounds for his release.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Room of Ghibeish city in West Kordofan said the militia stormed the village of Abu Mulaissi and arrested senior livestock and crop traders in the area, taking them to unknown locations. It confirmed that the operation was carried out with guidance from local collaborators loyal to the militia, with the aim of financially extorting families. Those named included Salah Mohamedain Dongora, Bashir Moussa, Youssef Al-Hindi, Abdeljalil Daw Al-Nour, and Hamed Ajab Daw Al-Nour—all livestock traders—as well as Nasr El-Din Yahya Dongora, Mohamedain Mohamed Adam, and Breima Hamad Talakadok, who are grain traders, in addition to others.
Another case involves the abduction of citizen Al-Tayeb Omar Mohamed from the village of Umm Al-Badri in the rural areas of Al-Nuhud locality. His fate remains unknown, as his family awaits the expected phone call in which the kidnappers will relay their demands—the customary procedure whereby abductors contact the family using the victim’s phone to specify the ransom amount.
Such behavior has become a daily practice of the militia in every area it has entered. Even in some regions that are no longer under its control, these practices persist. This week, police dismantled a kidnapping case involving a student at the University of Technology who was abducted from the Halfaya–Caesar Station area. The case is one of many involving missing abductees from various locations.
Police said they tracked the perpetrators to a network active in kidnappings, raided three sites, and found the student in an apartment in Al-Bustaan neighborhood, Omdurman, arresting two members of the network. Additional raids were carried out on the network’s premises in Al-Rawda and Al-Manara neighborhoods in Karari locality, where several suspects were arrested in possession of cameras, body armor, and mobile phones. Police also arrested an individual holding the rank of major in the Rapid Support Forces at his home in Tayba Al-Hasanab, where a pickup truck and a Kalashnikov rifle were seized.
Police spokesperson Fath Al-Rahman Mohamed Toum had earlier confirmed the arrest of 5,000 suspects wanted for justice between July and November. He said police apprehended 200 individuals impersonating regular security forces and shut down 40 offices in South Khartoum and West Omdurman—areas that had served as key militia strongholds during its presence in the capital. Police also seized 35,000 weapons.
Notably, the number of seized arms is extremely large for such a limited geographic area. In a later operation, police arrested an individual in possession of two suicide drones in East Nile, and also discovered fully armed combat vehicles in West Omdurman, found to be operational and combat-ready.
