By Summary
- RSF attacks displace 135,000 in Eastern El Gezira state, UN says
- Victims speak of intense and violent raids over the past two weeks
- El Gezira has seen attacks after RSF chief’s defection
NEW HALFA, Sudan – Salwa Abdallah was recovering from a caesarean section and tending to her one-month-old baby when soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) barged into her home in Sudan’s eastern El Gezira state late last month. The soldiers accused her of supporting the army and its allies, their rivals in an 18-month-long war.
“They said ‘You killed us, so today we’ll kill you and rape your girls,'” she told Reuters, now taking shelter under a makeshift sheet in the town of New Halfa, where she arrived after walking for days on foot with her elderly mother and children. She said the soldiers chased them out of their village with whips and later shot at them on motorcycles, which two other victims of the attack also mentioned.
A Sudanese woman, Salwa Abdallah, displaced from Gezira state due to RSF violence, holds her baby as she sits in a tent in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024.
Reuters spoke to 13 victims of a series of intense, violent raids in eastern Gezira over the past two weeks, which affected at least 65 villages and towns according to activists.
The UN reports that around 135,000 people have been displaced, largely to Kassala, Gedaref, and River Nile states, which are already packed with many of the more than 11 million internally displaced by the devastating war that broke out in April 2023. “I am shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind witnessed in Darfur last year … are being repeated in El Gezira State. These are atrocious crimes,” said the UN’s top official in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, referring to attacks last year that prompted accusations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity from the United States and others.
The war has unleashed hunger across the country, erased most signs of a functioning state in RSF-held areas, and raised fears of national disintegration. Both sides are accused of hindering much needed international assistance. A spokesperson for the RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Sudanese family, displaced from Gezira state due to RSF violence, sit at a shelter in New Halfa, Sudan, November 3, 2024.
“These are simple people who should be living safely in their villages. They are not fighters and there is not a single army garrison in the area that could justify the RSF’s accusations that they are working with the army,” said army spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah, accusing the RSF of carrying out a campaign of forced resettlement.
Revenge Attacks
Since the RSF took control of El Gezira state in December, the region has been subject to a violent looting campaign. However, a series of revenge attacks erupted following the defection of the RSF’s top leader in the state. The Wad Madani Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy group, reported that 169 people have been killed since violence surged on October 20, with the group suggesting that actual numbers are likely much higher.
The UN’s human rights office said last week that there were at least 25 cases of sexual violence, including an 11-year-old girl who died as a result. The office also said that the RSF had confiscated internet devices in at least 30 villages, and cited reports they had burnt fields of crops.
A man helps Hashim Basheer, a Sudanese man with a disability, displaced from Gezira state due to RSF violence, in New Halfa, Sudan, November 2, 2024.
The deadliest attack was in al-Sireha, where the committee said 124 people were killed on Oct. 25. Video verified by AfrikTimes showed RSF soldiers lining up men, many of them elderly, and some in blood-splattered clothes, taunting them and forcing them to bleat. Another video verified by Reuters showed dozens of bodies wrapped up in sheets for burial.
The RSF has denied ordering these attacks and said the attacks in El Gezira were the result of the army arming local communities. The army has responded by emphasizing the importance of local resistance campaigns, though there has been little evidence of widescale arming of civilians in Gezira. The Sudanese Human Rights Monitor warned the army against “leaving civilians … exposed to direct and disproportionate confrontations with the RSF,” which it criticized for not fulfilling promises to protect civilians.
Families flee RSF advances in Sudan’s El Gezira state, on Sennar Road in the city of al-Dinder, Sennar state, Sudan, June 12, 2024. REUTERS/ Faiz Abubakr.
Hashim Bashir, a man disabled after his leg was amputated prior to the war, said RSF soldiers threw him out of his home in al-Nayb village.
“They are very vicious… If you survive their gunshots, they hit you in your head. If you survive that, they beat you with a whip,” he said, showing scars on his remaining leg.
His niece, Faiza Mohammed, recounted how RSF soldiers prevented them from taking any belongings, including identification documents.
“I hid under the bed, but they found me, beat me, and pulled my earring straight off my ear,” she said.
Sudanese people, displaced from Gezira state due to RSF violence, sit under a tree in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig.
