Wad Madani, Sudan — October 27, 2024: A senior United Nations official today expressed deep alarm over reported “atrocious crimes” committed against civilians in central Sudan’s Gezira state, the latest intensification of Sudan’s 18-month-long conflict. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, underscored accounts of mass killings, assaults on women, and the destruction of homes and markets allegedly orchestrated by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
This comes after an activist group claimed that RSF murdered at least 124 civilians in a series of attacks on villages over the last week. RSF led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has rejected the claims arguing that the clashes are with armed militias supported by Sudan’s military.
Mass Defection Fueling Gezira Conflict
Gezira has recently emerged as one of the major flash points for conflict, where recent reports indicate that the defected RSF commander, Abu Aqla Kayka, and some “serious” fraction of the RSF forces allegedly took with him have deserted and joined the military. For this reason, the recent high-profile defection marked its first instance and posed an extreme blow to the RSF. The RSF in reaction declared that their troops “will defend themselves and decisively deal with everybody bearing arms.”
Worsening Humanitarian Crisis
Nkweta-Salami noted that between October 20 and October 25, RSF forces reportedly carried out mass attacks that killed civilians, looted property, committed sexual violence, and burned agricultural land. She compared these atrocities to the ethnic violence in Sudan’s Darfur region last year, where the RSF was accused of “ethnic cleansing.”
While the body count still remains unknown, early reports suggest that hundreds of civilians might have been killed. Civil society groups, as in the Wad Madani Resistance Committee, have called the RSF to “commit massacres in one village after another.”
The Sudanese doctors’ union has called upon the UN to demand that there be safe humanitarian corridors established so that aid is delivered to the affected villages, where the RSF’s acts were described as “genocide.” It also said that rescue operations that are going on are very impossible, and violence escalates that the military cannot provide protection to the civilians.
Background to the Conflict
The Sudan conflict erupted in April 2023 after a clash between RSF leader Gen. Dagalo and military head Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who had shared power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy. Instead, the partnership degenerated into a brutal war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over 11 million people since then. The attempts at negotiating peace, led by the US and Saudi Arabia, so far have been futile as both leaders remain unwilling to settle.
The UN, local resistance committees, and international watchdogs are urging increased international intervention to contain the humanitarian disaster in Gezira and greater Sudan. The events call for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table to avoid further deterioration and worsening of the humanitarian crisis in the region.