West Darfur, Gezira and Khartoum are Most Prominent.. Militia Violations… Revenge Campaigns Par Excellence

Sudan Events – Follow-ups

Since the outbreak of war in Sudan on April 15, 2023, the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RDF) militia has turned the lives of Sudanese into hell, and the militia has committed atrocities that have not been witnessed in the history of Sudan, but rather in the history of the world. Hemedti’s militia only settled in an area of Sudan and carried out retaliatory campaigns that mainly targeted the lives and property of citizens. But the worst of these violations occurred in the states of West Darfur, “El Geneina,” the states of Gezira, and Khartoum. Targeting civilians with killing, rape, looting, and plundering was the most prominent example of the militia’s violations in those states, which left a deep wound that will remain stuck in the minds of the Sudanese and that days will not succeed in healing it.
West Darfur… ethnic cleansing:
The worst massacres in Sudanese history were present in the city of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, at the hands of the rebel RSF and its allied militias within two months of the past year.
From April to June 2023, the Sultanate of Dar Masalit witnessed a series of bloody, systematic attacks launched by the RSF and the Janjaweed militia, aiming for genocide and ethnic cleansing in a racist manner against civilians.
A United Nations report stated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in the Sudanese city of El Geneina in Western Darfur last year, as a result of ethnic violence carried out by the RSF and its allied militias, according to the UN report.
The report, prepared by independent United Nations observers and submitted to the UN Security Council, stated that between April and June of last year, the city of El Geneina witnessed “intense acts of violence.”
In their report, the independent observers accused the RSF and allied militias of targeting the African Masalit ethnic tribe in attacks that “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” according to the report.
The report attributed the number of deaths that it said occurred in El Geneina last year to intelligence sources, and compared it with United Nations estimates that about 12,000 people were killed in various parts of Sudan, since the outbreak of war on April 15, 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
The observers said in their annual report to the 15-member Security Council that the aforementioned killings were planned and carried out in coordination between the RSF and Arab militias allied with them.
They pointed out that about 12,000 people fled from El Geneina on foot to Adre, Chad, between June 14 and 17, and that the Masalit tribe constituted the majority of the population in El Geneina, until its members were forced into mass displacement due to RSF attacks.
The report also stated: “Upon arrival at the checkpoints of the RSF, men and women are separated and subjected to harassment, searches, robbery, and physical assault. The RSF and their allied militias randomly shot hundreds of people in the legs to prevent them from escaping.
The report indicated that the RSF were targeting young men in particular, interrogating them, and executing them if they were found to be from the Masalit tribe after summary procedures, often with a bullet to the head.
It stated that displaced women were subjected to physical and sexual assault, and indiscriminate shooting led to the injury and death of many women and children.
The United Nations observers said that “many bodies were lying along the road, including the bodies of women, children and young men,” and stated that the RSF had committed widespread violations and sexual violence against the city’s residents.
Since the outbreak of war between the Sudanese army and the RSF in mid-April of last year, the city of El Geneina has witnessed “two major massacres,” according to a report by the British newspaper “The Guardian.”
The report said, “Decomposing bodies remained in the streets for up to 10 days in both massacres, as dogs and chickens ate their meat.”
The remains of the bodies of the dead are still there, trampled on by people as they go about their daily work, according to the newspaper.
However, the most prominent incident in El Geneina was the horrific and heinous way in which the RSF and its allied militias assassinated the governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abakar, who belonged to the Masalit tribe. He was brutally tortured and then murdered in a horrific manner. A video clip was broadcast showing the horrific manner in which he was killed.
Gezira .. invasion of villages
The villages of Gezira State live at the mercy of the RSF militia, which continues to invade one of Sudan’s largest and most populous states. Since it entered the city of Wad Medani in December last year after the army withdrew from it, it has continued to practice the worst types of violations from then until today, according to numerous reports.
Large parts of Gezira State, south of the capital, Khartoum, turned into a site of violations by the RSF militia after it took control of large parts of it last December.
The RSF invaded hundreds of villages in the state of Gezira, and committed unprecedented violations and atrocities that the state had not witnessed before by the RSF.
The invasion on the state of Gezira comes amid the continued interruption of communications and Internet services and power outages in most areas.
The spread of the war to the state adjacent to Khartoum forced hundreds of thousands to forcibly leave their villages, while those who chose to stay despite the intensification of security conditions were subjected to cases of looting, theft of property, arrests, and attacks. Dozens lost their lives, while there were reports of kidnappings of girls.
The interruption of communications and Internet services contributed to the lack of knowledge of what is happening on the ground.
The RSF are also expelling village residents and forcing thousands to leave their areas
This led to a large wave of displacement towards the states of White Nile, Sennar, Gedaref, Kassala, and Port Sudan. These citizens left their possessions behind them and left for displacement stations, where their unknown fate preceded them.
Following the fall of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira State, on December 17 of last year, security was disrupted in the rest of the various localities of the state after the entry of large reinforcements of the “RSF Militia.”
It tightened its control over the city, began to spread to the rest of the localities, and turned the lives of its citizens into hell.
In the first days, the RSF tried to improve its image in front of civilians, and did not attack them in the city of Wad Medani, but it began to loot markets, shops, and banks.
Five days after the fall of the city, its treatment of citizens began to be characterized by violence. It prevented citizens from leaving the city and forced them to stay, in addition to storming citizens’ homes to distribute snipers, installing outposts, starting to loot cars, and turning many government institutions into detention centers for anyone suspected of belonging to the army or the mobilized.
The militia carried out retaliatory campaigns targeting the looting of citizens’ property in villages on Gezira, during which it assassinated dozens of citizens who tried to repel the attack by those forces on their villages. Perhaps the massacre of the village of “Umm Odham,” in which more than (20) citizens of the village were killed, represents the greatest evidence against the militia’s targeting of citizens. Reports also spoke of militia members committing rape crimes against women on Gezira, but communications and Internet outages prevented access to complete statistics for these cases.
RSF violations in Gezira state prompted hundreds of civilians to sneak out at night on foot to leave the city
In light of the tight siege of the RSF on a civilian, they began to impose their conditions on civilians forced to stay, namely providing food and security in exchange for belonging.
In addition to recruiting citizens and forming committees in neighborhoods under the pretext of providing food, medicine, and protection
RSF also granted young people cards belonging to RSF to facilitate movement. This pressure from RSF prompted some young people to join them to provide protection for their families stuck in light of difficult choices.
Khartoum.. rapes and “plundering”
Khartoum State received the first blow to the rebellion of Hemedti’s militia, in which violations, destruction, and devastation affected citizens and the state alike, rapes, looting, and “shafshafa” – meaning the theft of citizens’ property. The militia did not leave anything for the citizens who left Khartoum to save their lives but looted it. As for the incidents of rape, it is another story of horrific violations committed by the militia in Khartoum.
Aziza – a pseudonym – says, “I wish I could forget that day, I wish I was dead before I saw what happened.” With these words, a young woman in her twenties begins her talk about the day when about 6 members of the RSF stormed her home, in Khartoum Bahri, north of the Sudanese capital. Under the pretext of searching for weapons, and when they did not find anything, they decided not to leave without achieving anything
Aziza, from her exile in one of the African capitals, told Al Jazeera Net that two officers – some of whom were in civilian clothes – forcefully pulled her into one of the rooms, so she lost consciousness from extreme fear. She does not know how long she stayed, but she woke up and found herself covered in blood.
Regional Director of the Horn of Africa Women’s Network “Sayha” Hala Al-Karib confirms that the information available about crimes of sexual violence is very scarce compared to what was committed on the ground. She explains that the majority of victims remain silent for months, and perhaps years, before telling the facts, while others are forced to go into detail if a pregnancy occurs.
She added to Al Jazeera Net, “180 cases were documented, but there were others that we could not follow up on due to movement and war. Some victims declined to speak, and they cannot be forced to do so.”
Regional Director of the Women’s Network of the Horn of Africa, Hala Al-Karib, revealed in a symposium on the occasion of International Women’s Day the widespread phenomenon of forcibly killing women who have been kidnapped in Sudan and throwing their bodies on the roads, accusing the RSF of committing widespread looting and killing.