A Report on Massacres by RSF and Allies

By Professor Kamal El-Zain, Human Rights Defender

The Rapid Support militias (RSM) and is allied Arab militias in the Sultanate of Masalit Region, known as the State of West Darfur, carried out bloody massacres from April 17 until November 17, 2023, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement, accompanied by killing of children, women, native administration leaders, and community figures on the basis of ethnicity all African groups, on top of them the Masalit ethnicity, with organized looting of citizens’ property. In this report, I would like to cite the abstract facts on the ground according to the standards of reports that are characterized by facts, clarity, transparency, and impartiality. These figures are all quotes directly pronounced by victims.
On April 24, 2023, a battle broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF in the western side of the city of El Geneina, at the headquarters of the Sudanese-Chadian Joint Forces. About an hour after the battle, the Sudanese army withdrew to the headquarters of the Fifteenth Infantry Division, but the RSM returned and launched violent attacks against civilians belonging to Masalit ethnicity who live in the neighborhoods of the Jabel without any reason, during which 96 people were killed and 110 unarmed civilians were injured, and the militia crimes continued on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, as the RSM and the Arab militias allied with them and supporting them launched large-scale attacks on the southern neighborhoods of El Geneina, namely Al-Jabal, Al-Thawra, Al-Buhaira, Al-Tadamon, El-Geneina Grand Market, and a number of shelter centers for displaced people who were displaced for the second time from the displaced camps in Karandak, Abu Dhahra, and the Al-Jabal neighborhoods during the period January 16, 2021, during which more than 400 civilians were killed and more than 600 wounded, with the complete destruction of the shelter center and burning. Also, on the morning of April 26, 2023, the RSM invaded the neighborhoods of the city of El Geneina and the markets carrying out indiscriminate looting operations, then broke into the Grand Mosque and stole all the books, including the Qur’an and floor mats. Then they burned food supplies and everything that would make a person live in a pity scene, thus they destroyed even food items.
On the morning of April 27, 2023, the RSM and their allies attacked the neighborhoods of Al-Zuhur, Al-Buhaira, Al-Jabal, Al-Tadamon, Al-Madrasas and Al-Mansoura with a tight siege from all directions, killing more than 450 people and wounding 303 people. On that day, all the shelter centers in which the displaced and the homeless lived were burned for the second time in their camps.
On the morning of May 12, 2023, the RSM and their allied Arab militias supporting them attacked the above-mentioned areas, in addition to the northern neighborhoods, the Hashab forests, and Galani camp, and killed large numbers of unarmed civilians, all in all: 414 were killed and 317 were wounded. There is a large number of victims that have not been counted as snipers were stationed alongside the roads ready to kill those who try to move and burry those killed or provide assistance for those injured.
On the morning of May 13, 2023, the same militias invaded the city of Janabiyah in large numbers from all directions, killing 307 people and wounding 201 people. They continued until the 14th, with the same militias invading the entire city and bombarding it with Catoosha mortars, RPG bombs, and 60-75, 120, 82, quadrilateral, dual, and anti-aircraft guns. Following these sweeping attacks which resulted in human suffering that had never happened in the history of humanity, the toll was 505 dead and 603 injured, turning the city into smoke in a clear sky.
Above all, the Sudanese Armed Forces did not intervene to protect civilians against the brutality of the RSM and their allies, despite the fact that the distance is seven kilometers between the city of El Geneina and the 15th Infantry Division. People could not find any explanation for this.
The RSM, the Tamazuj forces, and the Arab militias allied with and supporting them continued with the same barbarism on Sunday, May 21, Wednesday, May 24, Wednesday, June 7, Thursday, June 8, and Friday, June 9, 2023, with repeated attacks on all southern neighborhoods of the city of El Geneina, killing 770 civilians and leaving 512 civilians injured, and as a result, most civilians left their homes and crowded into narrow lanes between Customs Department and the end of the school districts, in extremely complex humanitarian conditions accompanied by hunger, thirst, and a lack of medicine and medical staff.
On June 12, 2023, the RSM and the Arab militias allied with them attacked the southern and western neighborhoods of the city of El Geneina from all directions and committed the worst atrocities, killing 319 civilians and wounding 413 ones. They targeted the city with drones and launchers. On June 14, 2023, the governor of West Darfur State, Khamis Abdullah Abakar, was arrested and assassinated in an aggressive manner and his body desecrated before the national, regional and international cameras. The Sudanese army did not react to that atrocious and heinous crime. Then the RSM carried out the ugliest and most violent genocide in the ancient and modern history of Africa. After the killing of Governor Khamis on June 15, 6016 citizens were killed, the majority of whom were Masalit ethnicity and 4,000 civilians were wounded, the majority of whom fled from El Geneina, heading to Chad, and others withdrew to Ardemta. During the withdrawal, a large number of citizens were liquidated in the Al-Naseem neighborhood, and the bodies were thrown in the roads between El Geneina, Ardemta, and El Geneina, Adekunk. Then homes were demolished over the elderly, besides all the historical and archaeological monuments of the city were destroyed: The outcome of the attacks in the city of El Geneina alone is 8,970 dead and 6,858 civilians wounded, including critical cases who have not received treatment at the moment of writing the report.
On May 28-29, 2023, the Misteri area of the Beida locality, 50 kilometers south of the city of El Geneina, was subjected to genocide, in which more than 600 people were killed and 300 wounded, and the entire population of the region was displaced to Chad, in addition to the displacement of part of the population of the localities of Forbarnaga, Habila, Krenek, Beida, Jebal Moon, and Sirba. A large number of these citizens have fled to Chad, but the humanitarian situation can be described at least as catastrophic, as the displaced have not yet received adequate food or shelter.
On November 2, 2023, the RSM launched attacks against the 15th Infantry Division of the Sudan Armed Forces, and after three days of confrontations, specifically on November 4 and 5, 2023, the 15th Infantry Division was occupied and the administrative unit of Ardemta, affiliated to El Geneina locality was invaded, which is 7 kilometers from the city of El Geneina, where 2,000 civilians were killed and 800 were wounded, and 370 are still missing, so far. The RSM focused on the leaders of the Masalit native administrations and assassinated Al-Farsha Mohammed Arbab Mohammed Farsha Farousheya Mistri, who was 87 years old, as well as Al-Farsha Abdel Basset Dina Farsha Farousheya Azrni, in addition to liquidating a big number of prisoners in a method contravening laws, international norms, morals and human values, and underage women were raped with severe humiliation beating and insulting.
Results of the war of the RSM and its allies against civilians in West Darfur state
1- Stealing citizens’ children and women, using children as livestock herders, and employing women as domestic maids in camps of Janjaweed groups. Men are forced to work on farms as forced labor without charge, and children and women are traded like animals in the livestock market.
2- West Darfur State’s loss of state sovereignty by that the so-called Tijani Karshoum appointed himself as governor of West Darfur State without legal or constitutional support.
3- All official and unofficial state institutions were damaged, citizens’ properties were looted, employees and workers records were destroyed, in addition to destroying the state’s central library, the Dar Masalit Sultanate Museum, demolishing citizens’ homes with bulldozers, looting all the headquarters of international and local organizations, destroying infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, medical center, electricity and water lines, and erasing all signs indicating the names and emblems of the Sultanate of Dar Masalit for the purpose of changing the demographic map of the indigenous population and ending their presence in the Sultanate by releasing a video recording in which they declare in the manner of (there is no Dar Masalit from today).
4- The emergence of serious diseases such as malnutrition, watery diarrhea, and skin diseases, in addition to the sudden stress of pregnant women due to shelling, mortars, and heavy artillery fired by the militia, and the collapse of the health system.
5- 800,000 refugees fled into of Chad, according to preliminary statistics, and some of them were deported to new camps such as Maji, Ornag, Arkom 1, Arkom 2, Zabout, and additions to old camps such as Farchani and Gaqa, and they were deported to areas about fifty kilometers away from the Chadian region of Adre, and those who remained in Adre area, suffer from a severe shortage of basic services, including housing, food, medicine, and drinking water, as well as looting and attack from time to time.
6- Large number of fugitives suffer from complex psychological conditions.
7- Burying civilians alive in Ardemta areas in a way that violates all human values, principles, and morals.
Urgent and necessary needs
1- More combined efforts of international institutions and organizations such as United Nations agencies, the European Union, the Troika countries, Doctors Without Borders, regional and local organizations to save the lives of refugees and save the remaining lives of detained and enslaved civilians in West Darfur state by the militia.
2- Evacuating the wounded to treatment areas and releasing the detainees and hostages whose number is about three thousand civilians.
3- Placing West Darfur state under international protection.
4- The necessity of breaking the siege of detainees and hostages, as the RSM demands the payment of a financial ransom in exchange for the release of their hostages.
5- Filing criminal cases against the leaders of the RSM and the Arab militias allied with them through regional and international justice institutions.
Email: alzynk46@gmail.com
November 20, 2023.