How Sudan’s RSF Adopts Israel’s “Genocide Model”

Sudan Events – Agencies

Al Jazeera English published a report by writer Matt Nashed explaining how the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have mirrored Israel’s methods of conducting and justifying atrocities, particularly in Darfur. Nashed argues that RSF has adopted the “Israeli model.” Here’s what the report says:

On April 11, RSF militia stormed the Zamzam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur, where they burned huts and shops, executed medics, and opened fire on fleeing civilians.

According to observers, at least 500 people were killed — men, women, children, and the elderly — and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

The attack sparked global outrage, prompting RSF to intensify its propaganda — which it had been promoting for months — claiming that Zamzam was merely a military base.

Ali Misbal, an RSF adviser, told Al Jazeera: “Zamzam was a military area… so the RSF decided we had to evacuate the civilians,” without providing evidence. He added, “We didn’t want civilians to get caught in crossfire.”

Sudanese human rights lawyer Rifaat Makawi said labeling Zamzam as a military zone is an attempt to apply the same model used by Israel to justify bombing hospitals and schools in Gaza.

He told Al Jazeera: “This is not a coincidence but a deliberate practice aimed at stripping civilians of legal protection by labeling them as combatants or tools of war.”

A Genocide Model

During the Sudanese civil war, RSF used language rooted in human rights and international humanitarian law — frameworks designed to protect civilians in war — to carry out its atrocities.

Israel has employed a similar approach for years to deflect criticism of its killings and oppression of Palestinians, according to legal experts. Since launching its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has intensified this strategy.

Israel claims hospitals in Gaza are Hamas “command and control centers,” thereby justifying attacks on them — despite international law prohibiting strikes on medical facilities.

It also alleges that Hamas hides among civilians and uses them as “human shields,” to justify disproportionate and deliberate civilian attacks.

Mass displacements are framed as “humanitarian evacuations,” even though people are forced to flee within hours to escape Israeli bombings — if they can.

Human rights groups and UN experts accuse Israel of committing genocide in a war that has killed at least 52,567 Palestinians.

Local observers and legal experts say RSF is now adopting this same Israeli strategy.

Similar Claims by Israel and RSF

Luigi Daniele, professor of international humanitarian law at Nottingham Law School, said: “The similarity between RSF claims in Sudan and Israeli claims in Gaza reveals the emergence of a model rooted in genocide or actual genocide.”

The UN accuses both RSF and the Sudanese army of serious crimes, including killing and torturing prisoners of war since the conflict erupted in April 2023.

But human rights organizations accuse RSF specifically of committing additional atrocities, including genocide against “non-Arab” communities in Darfur.

From Janjaweed to Human Rights Rhetoric

The RSF evolved from “Arab” pastoralist militias known as the Janjaweed — a nickname meaning “devils on horseback” in Sudanese dialect — notorious for committing atrocities.

RSF and the Sudanese army remained allies until around 2021 when they staged a coup against the transitional civilian government after ousting former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

After the coup, RSF signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee of the Red Cross to receive human rights training.

Today, RSF leaders and their political allies use human rights language to whitewash their crimes.

On March 8, the “Ta’sis” political coalition — backed by RSF — tweeted: “We stand in solidarity with Sudanese women in their recent plight, having endured tragic conditions and horrific violations due to this unjust war.”

However, the tweet omitted reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accusing RSF of widespread rape during the war.

During the Zamzam raid, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa — a local organization monitoring sexual violence — reported that RSF kidnapped 25 women and girls and raped others.

Lawyer Rifaat Makawi said: “What I see today in Darfur, especially in Zamzam, is not just a violation of humanitarian law, but evidence of its distortion and use as a cover for the worst crimes.”

Completing the Genocide?

Zamzam camp was established in 2003, about 15 km from North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, to shelter non-Arab Zaghawa and Fur communities fleeing violence in the first Darfur war.

These communities suffered violence that rose to the level of genocide, driven from their lands by state-backed Janjaweed militias, making Zamzam a symbol of atrocities.

The camp housed about 350,000 people, increasing to over half a million as fighting escalated between the army and RSF, which had taken control of southern, eastern, western, and central Darfur by late 2023.

In April 2024, RSF besieged El Fasher and nearby towns after the “Joint Forces” — a coalition of non-Arab armed groups — sided with the army.

Given RSF’s historic hostility toward non-Arab communities, fighters feared mass killings if RSF seized the entire state.

RSF also blocked aid from any organization that refused to pledge allegiance, causing famine in Zamzam. As civilians starved, RSF pushed the narrative that Zamzam was a “military base,” paving the way for an assault.

Musab, a survivor of the massacre now living in the nearby town of Tawila, said: “The claim of a military base in Zamzam is completely false. There were some people acting as police, but no military commanders.”

Ali Misbal, RSF adviser, said the high civilian death toll was because “the Joint Forces used them as human shields” — again, without evidence.

Ethnic Cleansing

RSF has also mirrored Israel’s tactics of conducting mass displacements under the guise of “humanitarian efforts.”

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has forced 2.3 million Palestinians into ever-smaller zones it labels “safe areas” in Gaza.

It then bombs or invades these zones, claiming they have become “military targets” due to the presence of Hamas.

Daniele of Nottingham Law School said: “What Israel has done in Gaza is effectively issue mass displacement orders under the threat of extermination, a declaration of intent to commit international crimes.”

On April 11, “Ta’sis” posted on Facebook urging civilians to leave Zamzam via “humanitarian corridors” to towns like Tawila and Korma.

But on April 27, a verified video by Al Jazeera’s “Sanad” unit showed an RSF commander announcing the arrest of unarmed civilians fleeing Zamzam through one such corridor.

He said they had sided with “enemies of Darfur” and the Arab elites (“Jalaba Arabs”) who dominate the army and government in central and northern Sudan — adding they might be killed “as a lesson to others.”

Though RSF claims its war is for marginalized tribes, it is committing horrific abuses against the most marginalized groups in Darfur.