The Kutum massacre

Previously unpublished execution videos link leaders of the Sudanese RSF militia to ethnic massacres in the Western region of Darfur

The war that has ravaged Sudan since April 2023 has claimed at least 150,000 lives and forced more than 10 million to flee. The two warring sides, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan’s armed forces, have both been accused of war crimes and ethnic massacres in the conflict – which both deny.

In a war where journalists are unable to access the frontlines and there’s a near total internet blackout, such reports have so far been impossible to prove.

Now, for the first time, visual evidence obtained and verified by Lighthouse Reports, in collaboration with Washington Post, Le Monde and Sky News, proves that RSF forces are involved in the extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians.

On 3 June 2023, the RSF took control of the town of Kutum in Northern Darfur. They faced very little resistance, as commanders of the rival Sudanese armed forces retreated ahead of the offensive. However, witnesses say that the RSF and allied Arab militias went on a rampage through non-Arab areas where they looted households and killed over 70 civilians.

They targeted the internally displaced peoples’ camp of Kassab, just 4km away from Kutum town, which at the time hosted over 22,000 people, many of them survivors of the genocide in Darfur.

Among those murdered were five brothers, one of whom was just 14. “A group entered the Eastern part of Kassab displaced peoples’ camp inhabited by a majority of Zaghawa people,” a witness told us. “They captured the Suleiman sons and took them to the water stream and killed them.” Another witness said they were tortured before being shot.

A video we obtained, filmed on the day by militiamen, shows the Suleiman brothers lying on the ground, bleeding, with their hands tied behind their backs. Next to them, armed men raise their guns. In another video filmed nearby and showing more victims, a gunman shouts “victory for the Arabs”. Next to him another gunman is wearing an RSF uniform.

We were able to confirm the identities of the victims and verify that both the videos were filmed in Kassab internally displaced people’s camp. Locals told us the brothers, as well as the other victims in the videos, were civilians not involved in the fighting and targeted only because of their ethnicity.

Several vehicles and more than 100 fighters attacked the camp, witnesses say, suggesting it was not a rogue group targeting Kassab but rather a coordinated assault that was planned by RSF leadership. One witness heard an RSF commander say: “Today we will enter Kassab camp by any means”, and refer to the displaced people as “slaves”.

Two men were repeatedly named by witnesses as the top commanders in charge during this attack: Lieutenant Colonel Ali-Hamid Al-Taher and Major General Al Nour Al-Gubba.

A propaganda video posted online on 5 June, two days after the killings, shows Al-Taher parading in Kutum’s army barracks. Four witnesses and one insider source told us Al-Taher was also in Kutum town during the fighting on 3 June. Al-Gubba, was named as being present by three locals and insiders told us he gave the order to attack both Kutum and Kassab.

Al-Gubba is a longtime member of the RSF accused of taking part in massacres in the past. He is currently the highest in command in North Darfur.

While Al-Taher died in combat in June this year, Major General Al-Gubba still plays a key role in the ongoing fighting over the Darfur town El-Fasher.

We obtained previously unpublished videos of executions of civilians committed and filmed by members of the RSF themselves. Through visual analysis, OSINT investigation and interviews with more than 25 witnesses as well as insiders from both sides of the conflict, we were able to verify the videos and the victims’ identities, understand what happened and establish who was responsible.

Through witness testimony we sought to identify the perpetrators visible in the videos. Many people we spoke recognized their faces and said they were from the area, often seen in the Kutum market but couldn’t recall their names. Three people told us that one of the gunmen was from Umsayala, a town next to Kutum which is also the hometown of the top commander on the field during the attack, Ali-Hamid Al-Taher.

The five Suleiman brothers were aged 14-35. Among them were two tailors, one university student and one cattle herder. They were described as hard working, well-respected and not involved in the war. They were staying with their mother when the gunmen attacked.

A witness recalled the moment they were captured: “I saw a young man, about 16 years old, storm the door of their house with a number of soldiers following him, calling out ‘nubian slaves’. Their mother pleaded not to kill them. There was a lot of discussion and moments later, I heard them saying ‘kill her’. She was struck and then she no longer spoke.

Another witness said the brothers were tortured before they were killed: “They also stabbed them, and they cut off their Achilles’ tendons and between their toes before they killed them.”

“They targeted them because of their ethnicity, because of the way they looked, they looked black African,” said another local.

In total we were given the names of 37 civilians killed during the attacks on both Kutum and Kassab, all of them non-Arab. Two teachers and an elderly woman were among the victims. Separate UNHCR reports state that 54 people were killed in Kassab camp alone.

“It was not an attack against the government, it was an attack against the people, something between the Arabs vs non Arabs,” explained one Kutum resident.

Approximately 70 per cent of the Sudanese population identifies as Arab. The remaining 30 per cent includes groups such as the Fur, Zaghawa, and Nubians. The Arab elite in the capital Khartoum has dominated politics and power while keeping the other regions poor and using ethnic divisions between different groups to divide and rule.

Eyewitnesses recounted in detail the use of racial slurs and the systematic targeting of black-skinned people on the one hand and how on the other hand Arab soldiers were freed by the RSF and Arab neighbourhoods spared: “They stopped a person called [Hussein Kabak] and asked about his tribe, and shot him on his head when he told them he is Fur.”

“The attack of June 3, 2023 was concentrated on the Gassur East Neighborhood of Kutum, because it is inhabited by the Zaghawa ethnic group believed to have weapons, ” a resident of Kutum explained.

Locals said Kassab was attacked for the same reason: because it was known to be hosting non-Arab communities.