Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed at least 124 people in a village in El Gezira State on Friday, according to reports, in one of the deadliest incidents of an 18-month war and largest in a spate of attacks in the state.
As noted in Foreign Policy, “The RSF was once known as the janjaweed, the notorious devils on horseback responsible for the worst atrocities of the 2003-2005 Darfur genocide, and for the past five months, the RSF and its allies have been laying siege to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.”
Following the surrender of high-ranking RSF officer Abuagla Keikal to the army last Sunday, pro-democracy activists said the RSF has carried out revenge attacks in the farming state where he comes from, killing and detaining civilians and displacing thousands.
Fighting erupted on April 15, 2023, as a result of a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Since then, the conflict has displaced more than 10 million people, creating one of the worst global humanitarian crises, according to data from the United Nations.
The war has forced nearly 3 million Sudanese to leave the country, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that almost 11 million people have been internally displaced.
In Darfur, the vast western region that has seen conflict for much of the 21st century, the RSF has been targeting non-Arab groups, especially the Black African Masalit people, in what humanitarian groups have called an ongoing genocide.
Throughout the war, aid agencies have been unable to reach large parts of the country. Often, convoys of trucks carrying vital aid have taken six weeks to cross Sudan.
At checkpoints run by both the Sudanese army and the RSF, some commanders will not let trucks carrying aid go through and fighters are looking to extract bribes.
RSF forces have burned dozens of villages of the ethnic Zaghawa people. Famine has been declared in parts of North Darfur. Local militias and armed groups allied with the SAF have so far been able to hold off capture of the city by the RSF. But both the RSF and the SAF have routinely engaged in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.
According to Roméo Dallaire, the founder of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security who served as force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, and Shelly Whitman, the executive director of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security, “no one is safe.”
They believe that if El Fasher falls, the RSF would be free to conduct a wave of ethnically targeted killing that could be much larger and more lethal than anything it has done before during the war in Sudan.
They point to a new report from the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Sudan which accuses both sides of ‘‘large-scale violations’’ of human rights and international humanitarian law.
‘‘Many of these violations amount to international crimes,’’ the report states.
The report is explicit that ‘‘children are paying a very heavy toll in the conflict.’’
Both the SAF and the RSF are accused of killing and maiming children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals. The RSF has recruited and used children in hostilities and committed rape and other forms of sexual violence against them.
The report cited ‘‘multiple credible reports’’ that the SAF ‘‘has played a role in the training and arming of children who have joined the popular mobilization.’’
What Sudan needs and what the international community can do is establish an independent and impartial force with a strong mandate to enforce the rule of law and protect civilians.
This multinational force in Sudan should establish safe zones for civilians to facilitate the delivery of lifesaving aid. It should support local self-protection efforts and establish boundaries to safeguard agricultural activities.
As Dallaire and Whitman point out, UN Chief Anotnio Guterres “has the opportunity to make a bold choice on Sudan” and should “call upon the Security Council to take swift action to protect a desperate population ravaged by war.”
The UN has failed so many people so many times. This is a chance for the UN to demonstrate that it can fulfill its mandate and prevent further suffering in Sudan.
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