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Up to 15,000 people were killed in a single town last year in Sudan’s conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) and the Sudanese army, according to a UN report. Independent UN monitors are comparing the death toll in the town of El Geneina with estimates that around 12,000 people have been killed across Sudan since the war broke out on April 15, 2023, Al Mayadeen reports.
RSF and allied observers blamed attacks against the ethnic African Masalites tribe for the huge death toll in El Geneina. They made up the majority in the city before the attack. However, around 12,000 of them had to leave the city.
The clash of the Sudanese generals
The Sudanese army is apparently also bombing targets in the capital, targeting rebel militias. Over a hundred civilians have already died in the conflict. Political geographer Bohumil Doboš tells Seznam Zprávy that the conflict has been on the verge of collapse for a long time.
Observers say the “intense violence” could amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The RSF has previously denied the allegations and said all soldiers involved would be brought to justice.
“The attacks were planned, coordinated and carried out by the RSF and its allied Arab militias,” the observers wrote in an annual report to the 15-member Security Council. “Upon reaching the RSF checkpoints, women and men were separated, harassed, searched, robbed and physically attacked. The RSF and friendly militias shot hundreds of people in the legs to prevent them from escaping,” observers said.
“Young men in particular were targeted and interrogated because of their ethnicity. When identified as Masalites, many of them were executed without trial by a shot in the head. Women were physically and sexually abused. Women and children were also injured and killed in the shooting,” the report said. The Masalites were the majority in El Geneina until attacks forced them to flee en masse.
About the situation in Sudan
There are reports of another wave of ethnically motivated killings from Darfur. RSF paramilitary units occupied the army base in the town of Džunajná at the beginning of November. According to witness statements, the militia also attacked civilians.
Everyone who spoke to the observers mentioned “many bodies along the road, including women, children and young men.” Observers also reported “extensive” conflict-related sexual violence by RSF soldiers and friendly militias.
Observers say control over most of Darfur, which includes El Geneina, rests on three lines of support: Arab allied communities, complex financial networks and new military supply lines through Chad, Libya and South Sudan.
“The complex financial networks that the RSF built before and during the war enabled it to acquire weapons, pay salaries, finance media campaigns, lobby, and buy the support of other political and armed groups,” they wrote Observers added that the RSF used proceeds from prewar gold trading to create a network of up to 50 companies in various industries.
The RSF’s new firepower “has had an enormous impact on the balance of forces both in Darfur and other areas of Sudan,” the report said. The RSF recently achieved military success by seizing control of Wad Madani, one of Sudan’s largest cities, consolidating its power.
On Saturday, United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials again denied that the country was involved in providing military support to any of Sudan’s rival parties. However, this is contradicted by the statements of independent observers who claim that the UAE supports the RSF.
Conflict in Sudan
The violence between the Sudanese army led by the country’s general and leader Abdal Fattah Burhan and the rebel forces led by their general Mohamed Hamdan Dagal has left three thousand dead and six thousand injured since mid-April.
“The UAE has stressed that it does not supply arms and ammunition to any of the warring parties and does not take sides in the current conflict,” the unnamed official said in a written statement to Reuters.
In December, the United States officially declared that the warring factions in Sudan had committed war crimes and that the RSF and allied militias had also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. As a result of the war, almost half of Sudan’s 49 million inhabitants are dependent on aid, and more than 7.5 million people have left their homes. This makes Sudan the largest displacement crisis in the world.
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